NFTs: the great rush may be over – but are they in actual decline?

Jack Dorsey's first tweet sold for $2.9m in 2021 then could not get past $14,000 at auction last month. But some projects have thrived

It was described as the Mona Lisa of the digital world and it came with a connoisseur's price tag: $2.9m (2.4m) for the first tweet by Twitter's co-founder. This was March 2021 and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, were bursting into the mainstream.

One year on, an attempt to sell on Jack Dorsey's Twitter debut for $25m was pulled after auction bids topped out at just $14,000 (11,350). Explosive growth of NFTs over the past 12 months has levelled off, and may even be in decline, according to analysis of the sector, as attention consolidates around a few of the largest players.