Nonfungible token (NFT) company Processed Digital has secured $100 million in funding to expand its product footprint and artistic capabilities, marking another major milestone for the rapidly growing NFT market.

The funding will be used to expand Candy Digital's NFT product offerings across the global sports market, including creating new fan experiences, the company announced Thursday. Candy'south existing partnerships include Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball game Players Association, Race Team Alliance and several college athletes.

The Series A circular was co-led by individual equity firms Insight Partners and Softbank Vision Fund 2, with boosted participation from Connect Ventures, Volition Ventures, Gaingels, Com2Us and Athletes Syndicate.

Professional sports are increasingly turning to NFTs equally a fashion to boost fan engagement, specially in the wake of the Covid-nineteen pandemic, which resulted in an estimated acquirement loss of $18 billion across major leagues worldwide. According to credit menu giant Visa, the loss of acquirement every bit a issue of lockdowns has placed more pressure on professional sports to "diversify revenue and focus on technology" equally a way to re-capture the attention of fans.

The NFT buying frenzy intensified in the third quarter, with the sale of digital collectibles hitting a record $x.7 billion, according to market place tracker DappRadar. That represents an eightfold increment from the previous quarter. OpenSea remains the single largest market place for NFT sales, but that could shortly change as more established brands enter the space.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is planning to launch its ain NFT market place. The waitlist for "Coinbase NFT" attracted i.1 million signups in 48 hours. Meanwhile, Binance, the world's largest crypto commutation by volume, launched its own NFT platform in June.

Related: NFT gaming proposition in question as regulators and traditional gaming pullback

Social media platform TikTok has as well appear its first foray into the NFT marketplace with a new drove inspired past its most famous trend-setters. With roughly i billion users around the earth, TikTok could provide more than mainstream exposure to digital collectibles should the beginning NFT drops prove successful.