Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet (“just setting up my twttr”) as a NFT for $2.9 million while US artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, sold a collage through Christies for $69 million.

But that was last year and art is fickle.

Prices for NFTs, which are a digital asset representing a real-world item, in America have fallen significantly in recent months to levels some of the US analysts believe are a more sensible and sustainable level.

A NFT of the popular Bored Ape series earlier this year sold for $US115 despite values of $350,000 but there was speculation it may have been a “fat finger error” or a mistaken keystroke.

Typically NFTs are bought with cryptocurrency. Blockchain data platform Chainalysis said about $US37 billion had been sent to NFT marketplaces since mid-last year.

The activity dropped significantly from $US3.9 billion a week in February to $US964 in March and then started to climb back up.

The META COLLECT gallery, at Matheson St, Baringa, was designed with the goal to make the Sunshine Coast a hub for artists and tech enthusiasts, according to chief executive Kenny Lienhard.

He said the global NFT community was worth billions of dollars and it was only the beginning of its growth. He said it would extend across business, sport and the wider community.

“Many crypto artists are emerging from poverty stricken communities and they now have the ability to sell their art and make a living via a global platform under their own terms,” he said.

“We are developing our own NFT marketplace and publication which is focused on undiscovered Web3 artists globally while also providing the opportunity for the general public to easily mint NFTs and broadcast them directly onto gallery frames.”