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This is a list of the highest known prices possibly paid for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing digital assets.
Monetization of digital assets as NFTs became possible with the release of Etheria, on the Ethereum blockchain, in 2015. [1] From late 2017, the NFT market grew quickly. [2] In the first three months of 2021, NFTs worth US$200 million were traded. [3]
One of the earliest NFT projects, CryptoPunks, [4] has provided several of the most expensive NFTs. [5] There were some NFT-like projects or "proto NFTs" that pre-date CryptoPunks; Rare Pepes, for example, was released on Counterparty in 2014.[ citation needed ]
The economic insecurity created by the Covid-19 pandemic sharply increased trade in risky investments like NFTs. The highest NFT trading volumes were achieved between August 2021 and May 2022. [6] The large influx of laymen of unsophisticated investors led to a price bubble. Since the height of trade in 2021, buyers returned to more stable investments. Coupled with problems in the crypto currency market like the bankruptcy of FTX and market saturation, most NFTs lost all of their value since the high point in 2021. [7]
This list is ordered by consumer price index inflation-adjusted value (in bold) in millions of United States dollars in 2023. [note 1] Where necessary, the price is first converted to dollars using the exchange rate at the time the NFT was sold. The inflation adjustment may change, as recent inflation rates are often revised. A list in another currency may be in a slightly different order due to exchange-rate fluctuations. NFTs are listed only once, i.e. for the highest price sold. To maintain a manageable size, only NFTs that were sold for an adjusted price of $2 million and above are listed.
Please note that these are the prices that were initially achieved; most of the listed NFTs are basically worthless as of 2024.
| Adjusted price (millions of US$) | Actual price paid (millions of US$) | Asset | Year of creation | Date of sale | Seller | Buyer | Blockchain | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $81.6 | $69.3 | Everydays: the First 5000 Days | 2021 | March 11, 2021 | Beeple [8] | "Metakovan" (Vignesh Sundaresan) [9] | Ethereum | First purely NFT artwork to be offered by a major auction house, Christie's. [10] |
| $59.3 | $52.8 | Clock | 2022 | February 9, 2022 | Pak | "AssangeDAO" | Ethereum | Depicts a counter of the number of days Julian Assange has spent in prison. The most expensive NFT sold on-chain. [11] |
| $34.1 | $28.985 | HUMAN ONE | 2021 | November 9, 2021 | Beeple [8] | Ryan Zurrer | Ethereum | A kinetic video sculpture with a corresponding dynamic NFT. Sold at Christie's [12] |
| $26.6 | $23.7 | CryptoPunk #5822 | 2017 | February 12, 2022 | Unknown | "deepak" | Ethereum | Released by Larva Labs. First bought for $1,641. [13] |
| $13.8 | $11.75 | CryptoPunk #7523 | 2017 | June 10, 2021 | "Sillytuna" | Unknown | Ethereum | Released by Larva Labs. Sold by Sotheby's. [14] |
| $9 | $7.67 | CryptoPunk #3100 | 2017 | March 11, 2021 | Unknown | Unknown | Ethereum | Released by Larva Labs. [10] |
| $8.9 | $7.6 | CryptoPunk #7804 | 2017 | March 10, 2021 | Unknown | Unknown | Ethereum | Released by Larva Labs. [10] |
| $7.8 | $6.60 | Beeple's CROSSROAD | 2021 | February 25, 2021 | Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile | "Delphina Leucas" (pseudonym) [15] | Ethereum | Resold from the October 2020 price of $66,666.60. [15] |
| $7.1 | $6.0 | OCEAN FRONT | 2021 | March 22, 2021 | Beeple | Justin Sun | Ethereum | Auctioned on Niftygateway. [16] |
| $6.6 | $5.59 | CryptoPunk #5217 | 2017 | July 30, 2021 | "Snowfro" | Unknown | Ethereum | Released by Larva Labs. [17] |
| $7 | $6.215 | Dmitri Cherniak's Ringers #879 | 2021 | June 15, 2023 | Sotheby's | "punk6529" | Ethereum | 2nd highest sale of generative art at the time. Work is nicknamed "The Goose" due to its emergent design resembling the animal. [18] |
| $6.4 | $5.40 | Stay Free | 2021 | April 16, 2021 | Edward Snowden | "PleasrDAO" | Ethereum | First NFT by Snowden on behalf of the Freedom of Press Foundation. [19] |
| $6.2 | $5.23 | Save Thousands of Lives | 2021 | May 8, 2021 | Noora Health | Paul Graham | Ethereum | Sold for 1,337 ETH in charity auction. [20] |
| $5.2 | $4.40 | Doge (meme) | 2021 | June 12, 2021 | Atsuko Sato | "PleasrDAO" | Ethereum | Highest selling meme NFT. [21] 1,696.69 ETH. [22] |
| $5.2 | $4.37 | CryptoPunk #2338 | 2017 | August 6, 2021 | Unknown | Unknown | Ethereum | Released by Larva Labs. One of 88 Zombie Cryptopunks. [23] |
| $4.9 | $4.14 | REPLICATOR | 2021 | April 23, 2021 | Mad Dog Jones | Unknown | Ethereum | First NFT auction by Phillips. [24] |
| $4.5 | $3.765 | EtherRock #55 | 2021 | October 25, 2021 | Unknown | Unknown | Ethereum | Via fractional.art. [25] |
| $3.6 | $3.6 | PEPENOPOULOS, 2016 | 2016 | October 26, 2021 | Unknown | Unknown | Bitcoin | Rare Pepe sold by Sotheby's in first auction on its Metaverse platform for NFT collectors. [26] |
| $3.4 | $3.4 | BAYC #8817 | 2021 | October 26, 2021 | Unknown | Unknown | Ethereum | Bored Ape Yacht Club collection launched in 2021 with 10,000 works. [27] |
| $3.9 | $3.3 | Fidenza #313 | 2021 | August 23, 2021 | Unknown | Unknown | Ethereum | Minted on Art Blocks. A generative art NFT by Tyler Hobbs. [28] |
| $2.9 | $2.9 | First tweet by Twitter CEO | 2006 | March 22, 2021 | Jack Dorsey | Sina Estavi | Ethereum | Sold for 1,630.5 ETH. Dorsey donated the proceeds to GiveDirectly. [29] |
| $2.7 | $2.6 | BAYC #8585 | 2021 | October 19, 2021 | Unknown | Unknown | Ethereum | Sold for 696.969. [30] |
| $2.7 | $2.7 | Dmitri Cherniak's Self Portrait #1, 2020 | 2020 | October 26, 2021 | Unknown | Unknown | Ethereum | "This generative self-portrait is the most important work in Cherniak's career." Sold on Sotheby's Metaverse platform. [31] |
| $2.8 | $2.382 | Machine Hallucinations– Space : Metaverse | 2021 | October 4, 2021 | Refik Anadol | Unknown | Ethereum | 8 works sold for a combined total of HK$39.39m (US$5.06m) at Sotheby's in Hong Kong. [32] |
| $2.4 | $2.043 | Dreaming at Dusk | 2021 | March 14, 2021 | Torproject | "PleasrDAO" | Ethereum | Sold for 500 ETH on Foundation. [33] |
| $2.4 | $2.035 | MetaRift | 2021 | March 15, 2021 | Pak | Danny Maegaard, aka "seedphrase" | Ethereum | Sold for 489 ETH on MakersPlace. [34] |
| $2.4 | $2.0 | SMB #1355 | 2021 | October 1, 2021 | Unknown | Unknown | Solana | Highest sale on Solana. 13,027 SOL. [35] |
A certificate of authenticity (COA) is a seal or small sticker on a proprietary computer program, t-shirt, jersey, or any other memorabilia or art work, especially in the world of computers and sports. It is commonly a seal on paper authenticating a specific art work which and is made to demonstrate that the item is authentic.
L’Homme qui marche I is the name of any one of the cast bronze sculptures that comprise six numbered editions plus four artist proofs created by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti in 1961. On 3 February 2010, the second edition of the cast of the sculpture became one of the most expensive works of art ever sold at auction, for $104.3 million. Its price meant it was considered the most expensive sculpture, until May 2015, when another Giacometti work, L'Homme au doigt, surpassed it.
Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-source software.
Sarah Zucker, born 1985, is an American visual artist and writer based in Hollywood, Los Angeles. She specializes in mixing contemporary digital techniques with older analog approaches as well as the use of VHS. Zucker is considered a pioneer of crypto art, releasing digital editions of her video art as non-fungible tokens since 2019.
CryptoKitties is a blockchain game developed by Canadian studio Dapper Labs. The game allows players to buy, sell, and create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) using Ethereum. These NFTs represent virtual cats. The game's popularity in December 2017 congested the Ethereum network, causing it to reach an all-time high in the number of transactions and slowing it down significantly.
Video games can include elements that use blockchain technologies, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), often as a form of monetization. These elements typically allow players to trade in-game items for cryptocurrency, or represent in-game items with NFTs. A subset of these games are also known as play-to-earn games because they include systems that allow players to earn cryptocurrency through gameplay. Blockchain games have existed since 2017, gaining wider attention from the video game industry in 2021. Several AAA publishers have expressed intent to include this technology in the future. Players, developers, and game companies have criticized the use of blockchain technology in video games for being exploitative, environmentally unsustainable, and unnecessary.
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded. Initially pitched as a new class of investment asset, by September 2023, one report claimed that over 95% of NFT collections had zero monetary value.
Decentraland is a 3D virtual world browser-based platform. Users may buy virtual plots of land in the platform as NFTs via the MANA cryptocurrency, which uses the Ethereum blockchain. Designers can create and sell clothes and accessories for the avatars to be used in the virtual world.
Leopoldo D'Angelo, better known by the pseudonym "Dangiuz" is an Italian contemporary visual artist, digital artist and art director specializing in sci-fi themes. His work has been featured in art networks, books, TV channels and magazines such as RAI, Arte, Wallpaper*, NVIDIA Studio Standouts, Juxtapoz Magazine, Sohu, Pixiv and Digital Production, and showcased in various museums and galleries worldwide. He also took part in the creation of Rui Hachimura's Cherry Blossom kimono design and Maserati's MC20 concept art.
CryptoPunks is a non-fungible token (NFT) collection on the Ethereum blockchain. The project was launched in June 2017 by the Larva Labs studio, a two-person team consisting of Canadian software developers Matt Hall and John Watkinson. The experimental project was inspired by the London punk scenes, the cyberpunk movement, and electronic music artists Daft Punk. The crypto art blockchain project was an inspiration for the ERC-721 standard for NFTs and the modern crypto art movement, which has since become a part of the cryptocurrency and decentralized finance ecosystems on multiple blockchains.
Michael Joseph Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple, is an American digital artist, graphic designer, and animator known for selling NFTs. In his art, he uses various media to create comical, phantasmagoric works which make political and social commentary while using pop culture figures as references. British auction house Christie's said he is, "A visionary digital artist at the forefront of NFTs". Beeple was introduced to NFTs in October 2020 and credits Pak for providing his first "primer" on selling NFTs. The NFT associated with Everydays: the First 5000 Days, a collage of images from his "Everydays" series, was sold on March 12, 2021, for $69 million in cryptocurrency to an investor in NFTs. It is the first purely non-fungible token to be sold by Christie's. The auction house had previously sold Block 21, an NFT with accompanying physical painting for approximately $130,000 in October 2020.
Everydays: the First 5000 Days is a digital work of art created by Mike Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple. The work is a collage of 5000 digital images created by Winkelmann for his Everydays series. Its associated non-fungible token (NFT) was sold for $69.3 million at Christie's in 2021, making it the most expensive non-fungible token ever.
Prince Jacon Osinachi Igwe, commonly known as Osinachi, is a Nigerian visual and digital artist. Described as "Africa's foremost crypto artist," he often uses Microsoft Word as his medium. Osinachi was the first African artist to have his work digitally auctioned as an NFT by Christie's in Europe.
Pak, formerly known as Murat Pak, is a digital artist, cryptocurrency investor, and programmer. Pak is known for creating the curation platform Archillect, an internet bot which reshares media based on user interactions with content hosted on various social platforms and for launching a platform for burning NFTs to receive tokens of the cryptocurrency Ash.
Curio Cards are collectible digital artworks located on the Ethereum blockchain. Created in 2017, Curio Cards are commonly viewed as the first digital art collectibles on the Ethereum blockchain. In October 2021, a complete collection of Curio Cards, including the card "17b" misprint, was sold for ETH393 ($1,267,320) at the Christie's Post-War to Present auction. The collection was tested for security vulnerabilities in September 2021 by softstack.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), often colloquially called Bored Apes or Bored Ape is a non-fungible token (NFT) collection built on the Ethereum blockchain with the ERC-721 standard. The collection features profile pictures of cartoon apes that are procedurally generated by an algorithm.
XCOPY is a London based digital artist associated with crypto art and NFTs. His real identity is unknown. He creates digital glitched artworks usually concerning death, dystopia and apathy through flashing imagery and distorted loops, with hints to the cryptocurrency community regarding concepts, mood and terminology. He is one of the highest selling NFT artists.
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