Finally, the most expensive NFT to ever sell was Pak’s ‘The Merge’. The $91.8m price tag was a record for an artwork sold publicly by a living artist. The NFT was sold on Nifty Gateway to 28,893 collectors who purchased 312,686 units of mass (which were single NFTs). The starting price of these units was $575, which increased by $25 every six hours.
The First 5000 Days is another one of Beeples high grossing NFT projects. It is a collage of 5000 individual NFTs that Beeples created for his Everyday’s series. It sold for an astonishing $69 million (42.329 ETH) in 2021 at the Christies Auction house.
The third most expensive NFT ever sold has a slightly unconventional origin. It was created to raise funds for Julian Assange’s defence after he was controversially imprisoned in May 2019. Assange is currently imprisoned on charges of espionage against the US Government, mainly through association with the Website he founded, WikiLeaks. The NFT itself is simply a clock depicting the number of days since Assange has been imprisoned
The whopping $56m price tag was raised by over 10,000 supporters, each of whom owns a share of the NFT. 100% of the proceeds went to the Wau Holland Foundation, which supports Assange’s defence.
Human one is a digital/physical hybrid piece of artwork also designed by Beeple. It sold for a record $28.9 million when it was auctioned off as part of Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale on 9 November 2021.
CryptoPunk #5822 is the most expensive CryptoPunk to have ever sold, racking up an astronomic $23m price tag. There has also been huge bidding and listing activity on the NFT. There have been multiple bids of over 1000 ETH (~$3m) throughout the token’s lifecycle. However, these have all been denied by the owner. In addition to this, the owner 0xDeepak has listed it for tens of thousands of ETH on multiple occasions. However, none of these listings have come to fruition. 19 days ago, the owner transferred the NFT to an unidentified wallet named 7DDFFB and hasn’t listed it since.
CryptoPunk #7523 is the second most expensive CryptoPunk NFT ever sold. It sold for a whopping $11.75m! What’s more, over four months ago, a wallet bid 20,400 ETH for it, which we estimate equated to around $65m dollars. However, the bid was cancelled before it was accepted. Other notable bids include an 800ETH bid from famous NFT collector Pranksy, which equated to roughly $1.5m. This bid was also cancelled, however. These huge bids highlight how much people prize the CryptoPunk collection.
The seventh most expensive NFT ever sold was also part of the CryptoPunk collection. Number 4156 was sold 4 months ago for 2500 ETH, which equated to $10.26m at that time. Unlike the previous two CryptoPunks on our list, #4156 has sold multiple times throughout its lifespan. Just over a year ago, it sold for 650 ETH, although the seller is likely kicking themselves for selling at this price. Before this, it was sold for 3.29 ETH over 4 years ago, a few months after it was minted.
CryptoPunk #3100 topped the price of the previously highest sold NFT from the collection when it sold for 4200 ETH, which was $7.67m dollars at the time. Again, this monster sale was the only time that #3100 has been sold since it was minted 5 years ago.
he ninth most expensive NFT ever to have sold is part of the CryptoPunk collection. The CryptoPunk project is a collection of 10,000 unique characters stored on the Ethereum blockchain. No two CryptoPunks are exactly alike, making them highly prized. When they were released, CryptoPunks were initially free to mint for anyone who had an Ethereum wallet.
The $6.6m sale was the only time that #7804 has been sold since it was minted over 4 years ago.
At the time of its sale, ‘Crossroad’ by highly regarded artist Beeple was the most expensive NFT to ever sell. It sold for $6.6 million on the NFT Exchange Nifty Gateway. The piece depicts a solemn figure lying on the ground, which is meant to symbolise Trump after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. What was cool about the NFT is that it sold before the election and would change based on the election’s outcome.