(Jan '24 update)
Are NFTs dead? Far from it.
Sure, the NFT market has experienced a cool-down in 2023, but it's still generating billions of dollars. Take Yuga Labs, for example. Their NFT Golden Keys made $1.6 million dollars, a Cryptopunk sold for $1.4 million, and a Bored Ape fetched $1.3 million.
Plenty more NFTs sell for huge sums of money. So let's have a look at the top 10 most expensive NFTs ever sold.
1. Everydays: the first 5000 days by Beeple - 69.3 million
This one reached the number one spot when Vignesh Sundaresan, a blockchain technology investor, coder and founder of the Metapurse NFT project, outbid the owner of the number 6 on this list at a Christie's auction.
This unique piece of digital art is a collage made up of 5000 individual images that digital artist Mike Winkelmann, better known by his artist name Beeple, created every day for over 13 years. It is the highest selling nft ever.
Beeple was inspired by British artist Tom Judd and began the daily project on 1 may 2007. Some of the images contain figures from pop culture, like Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump. Beeple's artwork has been compared in the art world to that of Hieronymus Bosch and Philip Guston.
2. Clock by Pak - 52.7 million
This NFT is a clock that keeps track of of how long Julian Assange has been imprisoned, and it raises funds for Assange's legal defence.
It counts the time Assange has spent in London's Belmarsh prison, awaiting his extradition to the United States on espionage charges. It was curated as a part of Pak and Assange's Censored collection and was bought by over 10.000 members of AssangeDAO, who pooled their money together and raised more than 56 million.
The organisation has also launched their own cryptocurrency called $JUSTICE.
Julian Assange once quoted Oscar Wilde when he said: "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
No surprise here that Pak, an artist who masks their identity and has used voice distortion mechanisms in interviews, would partner with Assange, and that the NFT community, many of whom are pro-privacy and pro-freedom of information, has rallied around the Wikileaks founder.
3. Human one by Beeple - 28.9 million
Beeple's Human one has become the third most expensive NFT thanks to its uniqueness. It has both a digital and a physical component, that changes according to Beeple's input, and will continue to change throughout the artist's life.
This digital artwork is a life-size 3D NFT of an individual wearing a spacesuit that changes color (bronze or silver) according to the artist's whims.
4. Cryptopunk 5822 - 23.7 million
An alien type with only one attribute: a blue bandana. It became one the most expensive nfts in history. Bought by Deepak Thapliyal, CEO of Chain, who goes by the name of Deepak.eth on the Ethereum blockchain.
He is also a holder of the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club collection.
5. Cryptopunk 7523 - 11.75 million
It used to be the most expensive cryptopunk until it was surpassed by the number 4 on this list. It is an Alien type, and it wears an earring (only 2459), a knitted cap (419) and a surgical mask (175), reminiscent of the covid pandemic. It was sold at an auction run by Sotheby's in june 2021.
6. TPunk 3442 - 10.5 million
A cousin to the Cryptopunk collection. It's called The Joker and you can see why, as it looks very similar to Joaquin Phoenix' legendary portrayal of the Batman villain in the movie Joker (2019).
It was one of the first unique digital assets to be sold on TRON blockchain and it was bought by its founder Justin Sun.
7. Cryptopunk 4156 - 10.35 million
This is the third most expensive cryptopunk NFT. It's an ape type, and it has just one attribute – a blue bandana in this case. There are only 481 of them.
The rarest headgear is the beanie, which only 0.44 percent of the NFTs have. This NFT jumped in value from 1.17 million to $10,35 in under a month.
8. Cryptopunk 5577 - $7.7 million
Another one from that most famous of NFT collections. Another ape type, of which there are only 24. And also just one attribute, which only 333 of the cryptopunk nft market have. This ape sports a cowboy hat, which only 142 punks have.
It was bought by Robert Leshner, the founder of the Compound defi protocol, a decentralized blockchain-based protocol that allows the user to lend and borrow crypto.
After the purchase, Leshner simply tweeted "Yeehaw."
9. Cryptopunk 3100 - $7.58 million
Another rare alien type, this one sports a headband, which only 406 punks have. Having only one attribute is also pretty rare in this NFT landscape, as only 333 of the Larva Labs collection have this.
When you measure the rarity by the number of attributes one could have Cryptopunk 8348 is the rarest in the entire collection, as it is the only one with a total of 7 attributes.
It has a cigarette (only 961 Cryptopunks have this), an earring (only 2459), a mole (644), buck teeth (78), top hat (115), classic shades (502) and a big beard (146), but it is the most common type, a human one, and with a worth of about a 170 k, it is nowhere near our top 10 of most expensive NFTs.
10. Cryptopunk 7804 - $ 7.56 million
The most rare type from the collection from Larva Labs's directors Matt Hall and John : the Alien punk.
This one smokes a pipe, and wears a beret and sunglasses, which makes it a very rare piece of the collection, as of the 10.000 Cryptopunks there are only 317 pipesmokers, 378 types wearing small shades and 254 wearing forward caps.
The collection has different types: ape, zombie, human, and the most rare, Alien, of which there are only 9.
This auctioned work was purchased by Dylan Field, CEO of Figma, a software company, who calls it his digital Mona Lisa.
11. Right-click and Save As Guy - 7.09 million
Created by the London-based digital artist XCopy, who uses distorted images to explore death, dystopia and indifference, with an aesthetic eerily similar to the art of the painter Basquiat.
It was purchased by Snoop Dogg's NFT alias Cozomo de Medici. It wasn't the first time the famous rapper purchased a work by XCopy as he also bought "Some Asshole" for 4 million dollars.
12. Ringers #109 - 6.93 million
A work of generative nft art, which is created by an autonomous and non-human system that can independently determine features of an artwork, instead of a human.
In this case an algorithm decided how to wrap a string around a set of pegs. Made by the Canadian, New York-based artist and coder Dmitri Cherniak, whose algorithmic art has been displayed in museums, but of course mainly rose to fame in the digital realm and the nft market.
13. Cryptopunk 8857 - 6.63 million
The first zombie on the list of the Cryptopunks collection, of which there are only 88. It has only 2 attributes, a trait which is shared by 3560 members of the collection made by Larva labs. It has wild hair (447 punks have this) and 3D glasses (286).
14. Crossroads by Beeple - 6.6 million
This Beeple's artwork is the third most expensive nft he's sold. It's a cartoonish work of a fallen down Donald Trump, with antagonistic messages written all over his naked body. This digital artwork was designed to change depending on the outcome of the 2020 US Presidential election. If the former president had won the election the crypto art would have featured him wearing a crown and going through flames.
15. All Time High in the City - 6.2 million
Another nft sold by XCopy. This animated digital art depicts the ferryman of the underworld transporting a man across the river Styx.
16. FreeRoss - 6.12 million
An artwork made by Ross Ulbricht, who is serving life in prison for creating and operating the darknet market Silk Road under his pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, after the fictional character from the novel and movie The Princess Bride.
The proceeds of the Ross Ulbricht Genesis NFT collection contributed to creators legal defense, but was also used to raise funds for Art4Giving, a charitable initiative to alleviate the suffering of incarcerated individuals and their families.
17. Ocean Front by Beeple
Another creation by the artist behind the number one on this list: everydays the first 5000 days. This one is a contemplation on Climate Change. It's visual art that depicts trailers and shipping containers on a lone, elevated platform surrounded by ocean, with a tree growing on top of them.
It was purchased by Justin Sun, who was outbid at a Christie's auction for the Beeple artwork that became the most expensive nft sold. The beneficiary of the proceeds is the Open Earth foundation that is creating infrastructure in the digital realm for improved management of planet earth.
18. Ringers #879 - 5.9 million
Generative art from the same digital art collection as the number 12 on this list, by Dmitri Cherniak. When working as a coder Cherniak realized that the creativity necessary to automate solutions for complex engineering problems almost always went unrecognized and this inspired him to channel his creative energy towards making generative art.
19. Cryptopunk 5217 - 5.44 million
An Ape type of which there are only 24. He has a red knitted cap (419) and a gold chain (169). Only 3560 of the punks have two attributes.
20. World Wide Web Source Code - 5.43 million
The World Wide Web, also known as the internet, was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, while working at CERN. He wanted to have a way to easily store, update and find documents in a large and constantly changing organisation.
Berners-Lee decided to put the source code of his famous invention up for sale as an NFT, though it should be noted that this is primarily an artistic reproduction of the real source code, as it contains a deliberate error.
The British inventor has been a long time advocate of giving individuals more control over their own data. "NFT's, be they artworks or a digital artefact like this, are the latest playful creations in this realm, and the most appropriate means of ownership that exists," he said in a statement released by Sotheby's.
21. Cryptopunk 7252 - 5.33 million
One of the zombies (88), who has crazy hair (414), a beard (282) and an earring (2459). At first this cryptopunk nft was sold 2.5 million, but than later he was sold again for 5.33 million, more than doubling the original buyer's investment.
22. A Coin for the Ferryman - 5.3 million
Another XCopy creation and just like "All Time High in the City", it is a reference to the ferryman who transports the dead across the river Styx.
Originally it sold for a mere 139 dollars in 2018, but then the popularity of the artist picked up and so did the price of this nft.
23. Stay Free - 5.27 million
The only known NFT created by Edward Snowden, the famous whistleblower who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency. The image shows Snowden's face made from pages of a US appeals court decision that ruled the mass surveillance program Snowden exposed had violated US law.
The proceeds went to the Freedom of the Press foundation, of which Snowden is the president, to help develop and invest in more measures to ensure privacy and press-freedom.
"Emerging applications of cryptography can play an important role in supporting our rights. This auction will drive the development of valuable and privacy-protecting uses of encryption, to safeguard press freedom and serve the public," said Snowden.
Honorable mention: The Merge by Pak - 91.8 million
If this would have been one NFT and it sold for this astounding price, it would have definitely been on the number one spot. Because it is the most expensive nft art ever sold, until the artist Pak decides otherwise.
However the difference is that The Merge actually consists of several different NFTs merged together, that were bought by 29.983 people, who collectively paid 91.8 million dollars for it.
The Merge sold out as a collection of some of the most expensive NFTs sold, being split in 312,686 coins, like nft shares, distributed amongst its buyers.
Top-selling CryptoPunks
When you take all 6 cryptopunks in the top 10, it amounts to almost the same value as the most expensive nft ever sold, Everydays by Beeple, and you can clearly see this collection has some of the most expensive NFTs sold of all time.
This collection inspired by the 8bit characters of old videogames shook up the art world. The highest selling nft cryptopunks are all dependant on their rare traits, like being an alien or a zombie, the number of attributes and the type of attributes.
The Cryptopunks collection created by larva labs's directors Matt Hall and John Watkinson, owns its high value due to a combination of factors like scarcity and rarity, cultural iconography, market demand and prestige and their pioneer status as one of the first NFT projects ever created on the Ethereum blockchain, bringing NFTs to the mainstream culture, which grants them historical significance within the NFT space.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)
Another collection in the NFT space is this club of grinning apes, which should definetly not go overlooked, because it is also one of the most expensive NFTs collections, raking in tens of millions. It owns its value not only due to its unique place in the art world and the cultural impact its had, but also to an exclusive membership with celebrity endorsement from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Gwyneth Paltrow and Justin Bieber.
The Most valueable BAYC NFTs:
1. Bored Ape 8817 - $3,408,000
2. 3749 - $2,907,016
3. 232 - $2,811,791
4. 8585 - $2,702,462
5. 2087 - $2,307,638
6. 7090 - $2,272,620
7. 8135 - $1,873,449
8. 4580 - $1,845,384
9. 3562 - $1,631,222
10. 5199 - $1,611,272
Why are NFTs so valuable?
Consumer interest
By far the biggest indicators of value are consumer interest and trends, which can be hyped and popularized by both the market and the community as well as the NFT creator and the digital collectibles they put forward. The more popular a collection or an artist, the higher the rank nft price.
Exclusivity
The worth of an NFT is primarily determined by its uniqueness. As the name non fungible tokens already suggests, they are unique, and you can't trade one for another one and have the exact same thing, unlike fungible tokens like Bitcoin or Ethereum.
How unique and special an NFT is can be seen by anyone on the blockchain and it’s impossible to falsify this information. An owner of digital art can be sure they own something exclusive when they buy one of these digital collectibles.
Ownership history
An NFT’s ownership and transaction history of digital assets are recorded in the blockchain. Anyone can see previous buyers, sellers, owners and the creator of the digital asset. Notable creators and collectors can increase the value in this NFT ecosystem. It makes it even safer than regular art ownership.
Transferability
NFTs make use of smart contracts, making ownership transfers simple. Certain requirements can be set in the smart contract, such as royalty percentages, which must be met by both the buyer and the seller before a transfer of digital assets can be completed. This makes trading safe for all parties involved.
