Name: The Merge
Price sold for: $91.8 million
Artist: Murat Pak
The most expensive NFT in history was purchased in December of 2021 for a staggering $91.8 million. The Merge was produced by well-known digital artist Pak, whose works have brought in more than $350 million. It was purchased for around $92 million by 28,983 participants who contributed a total of 312,000 shares (each of which is an NFT). The Merge has elevated Pak beyond Jeff Koon’s Rabbit from 1986, which sold for $91 million, to become the most valuable living artist in history.
Name: Everydays: The First 5000 Days
Price sold for: $69.3 million
Artist: Mike Winkelmann
The NFT art community truly smashed it last year, breaking record after record. Digital artist Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann, who gained fame after selling a collage of 5000 images which were created one by one every day for more than thirteen years and titled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” at Christie’s first-ever digital art auction.
Name: Clock
Price sold for: $52.7 million
Artist: Murat Pak
The third most expensive NFT ever sold stands out from the other tokens on this list since it was created for the benefit of a charitable organization. The Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Pak jointly created a non-fungible token called “Clock” that shows a digital counter of the number of days Assange has spent imprisoned at London’s Belmarsh Prison.
Name: HUMAN ONE
Price sold for: $28.9 million
Artist: Michael Winkelmann
Beeple seems to have a gift for making multi-million NFTs, and HUMAN ONE is no exception. In a Christie’s auction, this non-fungible token fetched a staggering $28.9 million. The auctioneer referred to the piece as a “triumphant follow-up to the artist’s infamous Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” and it is simple to understand why.
Name: CryptoPunk #5822
Price sold for: $23.7 million
Artist: Studio Larva Labs
The CryptoPunks are undoubtedly at the top of the list of the most popular tokens, regularly selling for record-breaking prices. Select NFT sets have developed a cult-like following. The concept, which Larva Labs introduced in 2017, was influenced by the London punk scene, cyberpunk, and electronic music pioneers like Daft Punk, it was released around 2017.
Name: Alien Cryptopunk #7523
Price sold for: $11.75 million
Artist: Matt Hall and John Watkinson
Due to the rarity of Alien CryptoPunks in the cryptocurrency market, Alien CryptoPunk #7523 has risen to the sixth spot among the most expensive NFTs ever sold. One of only nine Alien punks produced by Larva Labs, he has unique accessories such as an earring (2459 punks own one), a knit cap (419 punks own one), and a medical mask (175 punks have this). CryptoPunk #7523, also known as “Covid Alien,” was acquired by Shalom Mackenzie, the largest stakeholder of DraftKings.
Name: TPunk #3442
Price sold for: $10.5 million
Artist: Justin Sun
We’ve seen why alien punks are so valuable, but the TPunks are a distinct breed that’s also attracting interest from investors. They are viewed as CryptoPunks in the Tron universe. Although TPunks NFTs normally don’t sell for much, TPunk #3442, which resembles the Joker in particular, sold for $10.5 million at a sale last year. Justin Sun, the co-founder of Tron and a prominent cryptocurrency investor purchased it.
Name: CryptoPunk #4156
Price sold for: $10.26 million
Artist: Studio Larva Labs
Another Punk is responsible for this being one of the highest NFT sales to date. CryptoPunk #4156, which sold for $10.26 million last year, is being used this time. Disillusionment with the NFT project and Larva Labs’ handling of it led to the sale, according to the anonymous collector Punk #4156.