Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are changing the way we think about art with investors starting to take notice. In the last year, NFTs have shot to the forefront of the crypto space. But it’s not just interest that’s increasing. Individual NFTs are selling for massive sums of money, with artists like Beeple making headlines for record-breaking sales. Let’s take a look at the ten most expensive NFT artwork ever sold.
Let’s take a detailed look at the most expensive NFT artwork
1. Everydays; The first 5000 days
The artwork is named “Everydays; the First 5000 Days” and was auctioned at an auction house called Christie’s. It was a compilation of the first 5000 digital arts of the artist known as Beeple. This piece of art sold for a cool $69 million USD after an intense bidding war where the initial bid was only $100.
2. CryptoPunk #3100
CryptoPunk #3100 is the second most expensive NFT ever sold. It belongs to the group of only 9 Aliens out of the 10’000 different punks available. Only 406 punks have this accessory, and only 333 have a single one. So, based on the type, accessories, and accessory counts, this cryptopunk is super rare. This piece of art sold for $7.58 million.
3. CryptoPunk #7804
The CryptoPunk #7804 is on our top 10 most expensive NFTs list with $7.57 million. Only 254 punks come with Cap Forward, 378 punks come with Pipe, and 317 punks come with small shades. If this punk continues to grow, the buyer, Dylan thinks that it will have a big impact on the future of crypto. He envisions NFTs from this collection having a re-sell value of over $20 million.
4. Crossroads
Crossroads is another crypto artwork from artist Beeple, and this sale happened just days before the massive sale of Everydays. More so, the artist sold this piece in Nifty Gateway. This is not a compilation like Everydays, but it’s a single piece of artwork. The fun fact is that the artist made two versions of this – one was for if Trump would win, and another one was for If Trump would lose. This NFT sold for $6.6 million.
5. This Changes Everything
World wide web creator, Sir Tim Berners-lee sold an NFT representing the original world wide web source code. The artwork, titled “This Changes Everything”, sells for $5.4 million at Sotheby’s. Days later, someone spotted a coding error in the HTML code that was used to create the artwork. The error was quickly spotted by other users of the web, who posted the image on reddit and GitHub.
6. Stay Free
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden created and auctioned a digital artwork titled “Stay Free” the work depicts a cut-out of a pensive Snowden against a background of an appeals court decision. Proceeds go to the freedom of the press foundation, a non-profit that advocates for free speech, freedom of the press, and public-interest journalism. A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) set up to acquire “culturally significant pieces with a charitable twist”. He will be making a sizable donation with the NFT having sold for a whopping $5.27 million.
7. CryptoPunk #2338
This CryptoPunk was sold for $4.4 million. The previous owner made over a million percent profit after buying it for only $443 back in 2018. It is one of only 88 zombies and one of 4 that have the Mohawk Attribute.
8. Fidenza #313
Ethereum-based generative art collection Art Blocks has been quietly racking up hundreds of millions of dollars in trading volume. In August 2021, it marked its largest single NFT sale to date, with Fidenza #313 by Tyler Hobbs changing hands for 1,000 ETH or approximately $3.3 based on ETHs value at the time of sale. Tyler had bought the NFT for only 0.58 ETH just a few days prior. Not a bad markup. The project as a whole generated $300 million in trading volume in august 2021 alone.
9. The First Tweet
The very first tweet was tweeted by Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter back in 2006. Later on, he sold the tweet to Oracle CEO Sina Estav for $2.9 million. This is just another example of how NFTs can be used to store and sell pieces of digital history. All proceeds went to charity.
10. CryptoPunk #6965
Yet another CryptoPunk on this list. This one, like all CryptoPunk NFT figures, have their own characteristics which is what gives them their value. Number #6965 is of the Ape species and comes with a Fedora accessory, making it one of the few CryptoPunk figures being apes to sport fedoras. The detail alone netted $1.54 million, not bad for a computer generated image.
The art world is certainly entering a new phase and the prices paid for crypto artwork may yet dwarf the figures on this list. It remains to be seen whether NFTs are a fad or whether they really are the new big thing. As with all artwork, it’s worth whatever the buyer is willing to pay for it.