NFTS have exploded in recent months and are changing the way we think about art.
Here are the biggest sales to date.
1) Everydays: The First 5000 Days: $69.3 million
The most expensive NFT ever sold is Everydays: The First 5000 Days.
The NFT, created by Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann, sold for $69.3 million at Christie’s.
It was the first time the auction house has ever sold an NFT.
The artwork represents a collage of 5,000 of Beeple’s earlier artworks, showing his progress as an artist over his career.
It was purchased by Vignesh “Metakovan” Sundaresan.
Sundaresan said: “The point was to show Indians and people of color that they, too, could be patrons, that crypto was an equalizing power between the West and the Rest, and that the global south was rising.”
Tron CEO and founder Justin Sun also bid a whopping $60.2 million for the piece before getting outbid by Sundaresan.
2) CryptoPunk #7523: $11.8 million
In second place is CryptoPunk #7523 after it sold for $11.8 Million
CryptoPunks, developed by Matt Hall and John Watkinson from American game studio Larva Labs, were initially given away for free.
CryptoPunk #7523 has several attributes, being one of just nine Alien punks.
Its medical mask also makes it unique given COVID and is one reason why it was snapped up in Sotheby’s “Natively Digital” by DraftKings’ largest shareholder, Shalom Meckenzie.
Meckenzie said: “I really wanted this particular CryptoPunk.
“It is part of the alien collection, which is the rarest of the punks, and the only alien that has a mask.
“I thought it was symbolic of Covid and the popularisation of NFTs.”
3) CryptoPunk #7804: $7.56 million
Dylan Field, the CEO of design software company Figma, bought the third most expensive NFT ever purchased – CryptoPunk #7804.
The NFT sold for 4,200 ETH in March 2021.
Like CryptoPunk #7523, CryptoPunk #7804 is one of just nine “alien” CryptoPunks and has three accessories – a forward cap, sunglasses, and a pipe.
4) CryptoPunk #3100: $7.51 million
CryptoPunks make up five of the top 10 most expensive NFTs.
CryptoPunk #3100 sports a headband and also sold for 4,200 ETH – a total of $7.51 million in March 2021.
5) CROSSROAD: $6.66 million
CROSSROAD was also created by Beeple.
CROSSROAD is an enlarged Donald Trump-like figure with profanities written across his naked body.
The NFT was designed to change based on the outcome of the 2020 US election.
If Trump had won, it would’ve depicted him wearing a crown and striding through flames.
The NFT was sold just four months after it was first purchased, at roughly 10x its original price.
6) Ocean Front: $6 million
In March 2021, Tron CEO Justin Sun paid $6 million for Beeple’s NFT – Ocean Front.
The profits from the auction went to the Open Earth Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to combat climate change.
7) CryptoPunk #5217: $5.44 million
Another CryptoPunk.
CryptoPunk #5127 is one of 24 Ape punks and sports a knitted cap and gold chain.
It sold for $5.44 million in July 2021.
8) World Wide Web source code: $5.43 million
World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee auctioned off the original source code of the web as an NFT for $5.43 million at Sotheby’s in June 2021.
The NFT includes four items.
The first is a collection of time-stamped files containing the source code for HTML, HTTP and URIs (the three fundamental languages and protocols Berners-Lee wrote in the early 90s).
The second is a half-hour video of someone typing up the code on a black screen, the third is a digital poster of the code signed by Berners-Lee’s and the fourth is a letter, dated June 2021, from Berners-Lee that details his experience creating the code.
As the source code to the web is open source, all the NFT owner actually owns is the artististic NFT package Berners-Lee created.
He said: “I’m not even selling the source code.
“I’m selling a picture that I made, with a Python program that I wrote myself, of what the source code would look like if it was stuck on the wall and signed by me.”
9) CryptoPunk #7252: $5.3 million
CryptoPunk #7252 – a Zombie punk with a chinstrap, earring and crazy hair – was bought in early August 2021 for $2.5 million and then sold again for more than double (1,600 ETH or $5.33 million) on August, 24, 2021.
10) Stay Free: $5.27 million
Whistleblower Edward Snowden created and auctioned off an NFT titled “Stay Free” in April 2021 for $5.27 million.
The NFT show the face of Edward Snowden as a cut-out, with the background being the documented court decision ruling the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance violated the law.
The $5.27 million went to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit that advocates for free speech, freedom of the press, and public-interest journalism.
