NFTs(non - fungible tokens) are the most recent trend that has brought the art world to a halt. Whether you like it or not, the concept demonstrates that digital ownership is in high demand, with some willing to pay a high price for it.
Artists like Beeple and Pak have sold their pieces for tens of millions of dollars, and collections like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks have become some of the most expensive pieces of art you can buy.
In light of this, below are the most expensive NFTs through 2022:
To Date, the Most Expensive NFTs
Because the data is always changing and the business is so new, it's tough to compile all of the information on the world's most expensive NFTS.
Cryptopunk
An NFT named Cryptopunk sold for $532 million in 2021. What's fascinating about this NFT is that many people are speculating on social media networks that this isn't the world's most valuable NFT, but rather a PR stunt to boost the value of NFTs.
The NFT that sold for this much was Cryptopunk, and it was one of three thousand. The fact that the NFT in question is being sold again is what makes this transaction so intriguing.
The Merge
We believe that the most expensive NFT ever sold was The Merge, which sold for about $92 million, if publicity stunts are taken out of the equation.
To be precise, it fetched $91.8 million at auction. When compared to the sale of Cryptopunks, this transaction was a lot more legal. However, the fact that people argue on whether it should be classified as an individual piece or as multiple pieces.
To put it another way, it wasn't sold to a single purchaser, instead more buyers.
Every few hours, the price of a coin rose by $575. The coins were sold to more than 30,000 buyers for a total of $91.8 million at the end of the sale.
The First 5000 Days
The First 5000 Days by Beeple (Mike Winklemann), a popular digital artist, is one of the most expensive NFTs to date.
The 5000 pieces of art, one for each day of his career, create the illusion of a collage in the final product. In a Sotheby's sale that ended the bidding process, Beeple was elevated to one of the world's most highly regarded living painters.
The item was eventually auctioned for 42329,5 ETH (about $69 million). Justin Tron, the inventor of TRX, and Metakovan, the founder of Lendroid and Portkey Technologies, battled it out in the last stretch for the piece.
Finally, Metakovan was selected as the successful bidder (real name Vignesh Sundaresan).
Note that Beeple has a number of other pieces of art that are worth a lot of money and should be included in this list. A few examples of these include Ocean Front (sold for $6 million) and Crossroad. It appears, however, that the Donald Trump-themed artwork "Crossroad" has "recently resold on the secondary market for USD 6.6 million," according to the Nifty Gateway trading platform.
CryptoPunk 7523
Known as the "Rolex of NFTs," CryptoPunks have a cult-like following among the rich and famous. One of the early NFTs to appear on the Ethereum blockchain, all 10,000 of them are now highly sought after.
Some CryptoPunks, on the other hand, are more expensive than others, and the rarest one was recently sold for $11.75 million at a Sotheby's auction house.
There are only nine Alien Punks in the series, thus CryptoPunk 7523 isn't just a one-of-a-kind CryptoPunk. In the past two years, the mask emblem has grown in importance. As a result, Punk 7532 has earned the moniker "Covid Alien."
It was revealed that Sillytuna, the seller who only goes by the alias Silly, was struggling to sale the Punk because it had become a part of his character over the past few years.
In the end, the bidding began at $1.5 million, with final estimates ranging from $7 to $9 million dollars. The customer paid $11.75 million in the end, as previously mentioned. The main stakeholder of DraftKings, Shalom Mackenzie, was the successful bidder.
Three days later, on March 11th, 2021, CryptoPunk 3100 surpassed its predecessors in price.
Number 7 on the list of most elusive CryptoPunks is #3100, an Alien punk wearing nothing but a headband.
Cryptopunk 7804
Punk 7804 was another Larva Labs extraterrestrial punk auctioned at Sotheby's. At the time of the sale, the punk took in a whopping $4200 ETH or $7,57 million. Keep in mind that the auction took place in March 2021, a time when many people believed the NFT market had peaked.
Punk 7804 has been sold to whom? Dylan Field is the CEO of Figma, a $2 billion unicorn in the visual design space.
The punk is referred to as a "digital Mona Lisa" of the Metaverse by the tech creator, who believes his investment in NFTs will grow in value as Ethereum's reputation and price rises.
Stay Free (Edward Snowden)
An NFT art piece called Stay Free completes the list. Snowden's white-colored image serves as an overlaid on top of a compilation of court documents demonstrating the NSA's widespread surveillance practices are illegal.
PleasrDAO purchased the work in April 2021 for $5.4 million, with the revenues going to the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
The fact that this particular work of digital art made headline news helped expose the NFT industry to a wider audience, even if it wasn't the most costly item on our list. That's why sales of this product have a favorable effect on the market as a whole.
Human One
Beeple sold his second-highest-selling NFT artwork on November 9, 2021. During a Christie's auction, an American artist's work, Human One, sold for US$28.9 million. Investor Ryan Zurrer of Switzerland was the buyer.
Human One is a world apart from the rest of the world: In contrast to The First 5,000 Days, which is a digital-only work, there is no physical manifestation of The First 5,000 Days.
One of Beeple's creations is a 7ft tall, human-like sculpture that looks to be constantly moving through ever-changing environments. Using four 16K-resolution video screens, a 4x4-foot box, the 3D movement is displayed.
Two media servers and a mahogany wood frame were included in the kinetic video sculpture, according to Christie's.
The dynamic NFT for Human One was issued on October 28th, 2021. Beeple will be able to access and make changes to the work from a distance, which makes it special. As long as the artist is still alive, he or she has the power to alter the creative components, such as the terrain.
Artwork is intended to be shown on the Physical Element at all times." Remote control of the Physical Element will be maintained by Beeple in order to assure appropriate functionality and/or enhance the presented artwork. Christie's stated in its description of Human One that "Beeple warrants that the Physical Element contains no characteristics designed to disrupt the continued presentation of the Artwork."
CryptoPunk 5822
A significant NFT sale of CryptoPunk #5822 took place on February 13th, 2022, and the artwork sold for 8,000 ETH, which at the time of the sale was equivalent to around USD 23.7 million. The most expensive CryptoPunk was sold ever.
An Alien-themed CryptoPunk has bluish-green skin and only one accessory: a blue bandana. Punk #5822 appeared in a tweet from Chain CEO Deepak Thapliyal, who reportedly purchased the token.
