- 1. Pak’s ‘The Merge’ — $91.8m Anonymous digital artist Pak’s creation, The Merge, sold for US$91.8 million on Nifty Gateway, with 28,983 collectors securing 312,686 total units of mass. The concept of this artwork is rooted in the smart contract, a special ‘merge’ function that allowed buyers to purchase pieces of mass and merge multiple pieces to make a bigger mass. Each unit was priced at US$575, which increased by US$25 every six hours. By the end, the tokens sold for a total of US$91.8 million – making it the world’s most expensive NFT!
- 2. Everyday: the First 5000 Days — $69.3m Beeple, otherwise known as Mike Winkleman, sold this life-changing piece of art at Christie’s auction in October 2021 for $69 million. This work was hailed as “the next chapter of art history” and Beeple was called “one of the most valuable living artists”. This was the first purely digital work of art ever offered by a major auction house and represented 5000 pieces of Beeple’s work in collage form. “Everyday…” was part of a project where he produced a piece of art every day and this project is now in its 14th consecutive year.
- 3. Clock — $52.7m Does it seem unreal that this would be one of the most expensive pieces of digital art ever made? Well – each of the world’s most expensive NFTs stand for something significant – and “Clock” is no different! ‘Clock’ is a piece created by the aforementioned artist Pak and Julian Assange, and counts the days that WikiLeaks founder Assange has been imprisoned. Assange is a powerful symbol and personifies something that peoples around the world value greatly. This NFT raised funds for Assange’s legal defense and was ultimately purchased by AssangeDAO — a collection of over 10,000 people pooling their money to purchase the NFT and support Assange.
- 4. Beeple’s HUMAN ONE — $28.985m Human One is another earth-shaking piece of art, which Mike Winkleman created in the wake of his “Everydays…” masterpiece. According to Christie’s: “The new sculpture is a generative work of art, a dynamically changing hybrid physical and digital piece, which the artist intends to seamlessly add and evolve creatively over the course of his lifetime.” With Human One, you can see that Beeple wanted to create something truly unique and with the kinetic video sculpture — four video screens (16k resolution), polished aluminum metal, mahogany wood frame, dual media servers; endless video, and corresponding dynamic NFT – we can safely say he achieved that!
- 5. CryptoPunk #5822 — $23.7m CryptoPunks are NFT pioneers and #5822 was double the next most expensive Cryptopunks NFT. What can we say about this NFT? It represents one of the first-ever generative NFT collections, and it’s one of the rarest Cryptopunks out there. The punk was bought by Deepal Thapliyal, the CEO of blockchain startup ‘Chain’. This punk is one of nine aliens in the collection of 10,000 NFTs and one of 333 who wear a bandana. There we have it – the top 5 NFT sales of all time and what an esteemed collection of works, representing various emerging subcultures in the world of Web3. Whether it’s political statements, postmodern art, or technological advancements – they all stand for something powerful and that’s partly why they’re so valuable. Thanks for reading. We look forward to reviewing more of the world’s most expensive NFTs at the end of the year!
