The Most Expensive NFT Art of All Time (August 2022)

The Most Expensive NFT Art of All Time (August 2022)

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Looking for the most expensive NFT art? We disclose it all in our compilation of the Most Expensive NFT Art of All Time.

NFTs have been on the market since 2015, they didn’t gain worldwide attention until 2021 — when these digital arts started selling for enormous amounts.

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As the world continues to face the NFT direction, these artworks have continued to rise in value. When we talk about expensive NFT arts, we are talking about NFTs that have crossed the $10 million thresholds. Though by the end of the year, this threshold will increase due to the increasing utilities and popularity of NFTs.

These figures exclude the popular — and prohibitively expensive — NFT series CryptoPunks, which is a collection of 10,000 pieces rather than individual one-of-a-kind works.

Some of the four punks produced in 2017 by LarvaLabs would make the list with prices ranging from $6.63 million to $11.75 million. (A rumored $500 million Punk transaction is not included.) Other crypto-art collections have also had record-breaking auction results, with Sotheby’s selling a set of 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs for $24.4 million in October, also from a 10,000-piece collection.

And, as could be expected, one artist continues to reign supreme in terms of NFT domination. Beeple occupied three of the top ten places on the list of the most expensive NFTs ever sold. Beeple has maintained this ratio for months, and has equally strengthened his position but was toppled by The Merge created by Nifty Gateway. Beeple has continued to capture a spot in the top 5 slots and has continued to do so today, despite being overrun by newcomers.

Let’s take a look at the highest record sales of the most expensive NFT the global market has recorded.


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The Most Expensive NFT Art of All Time

1. Pak’s “The Merge” (USD 91.8 million)

Pak's The Merge

The Merge is the most expensive NFT art of all time and it sold at a whooping sum of USD 91 million.

What would be known today as the biggest NFT sale in history took place on Nifty Gateway. “The Merge” is an unusual NFT collection that was created by Pak and unveiled on the platform as part of a two-day sales event.

The Merge was available in an open edition (the reverse of limited edition) for 3 days. Buyers acquired any number of tokens starting with a unit price of US$575, which grew by US$25 every six hours. By the conclusion, the tokens sold for a total of US$91,806,519 million.

The more mass buyers acquired, the bigger their mass got.

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To explain things further, Pak’s Merge purportedly contains a built-in scarcity mechanism that assures token supply drops over time. As a result, every Merge token transfer merges it with the token in the recipient wallet, adding up the mass value and forming a single coin.

Following the release of this project, over 28,000 collectors were recorded to have purchased a total of 266,434 units. This sale makes Pak the most expensive living artist in the world.

Naturally, the NFT world is ecstatic with the outcome, ready to promote digital artworks as true works of art; but, Pak’s term at the top is controversial. It all comes down to how an artwork is defined.

While Jeff Koon’s 1986 sculpture Rabbit now holds the record for the most expensive work ever sold at USD$91 million, Merge’s USD$91.8 million price tag would place itself as the highest sold. However, given that Koons sold just one piece and Pak sold 266,445 units, one could argue that it is more of a collection than an artwork.

The Top 5 Most Expensive NFTs

6. Larvalabs CryptoPunk #7523: US$11.75 million

Larvalabs CryptoPunk #7523

Larvalabs has made its mark among the most expensive NFTs in the world. On 10 June 2021, CryptoPunk #7523 was sold at a Sotheby’s auction for US$11.75 million, making it the collection’s second-most expensive ‘punk’. #7523 is one of nine pieces in the collection’s Alien series.

Additionally, the bluish-green-skinned creature is dressed in a knitted cap and earrings. Additionally, it is the only Alien and one of the 175 characters in the collection to wear a medical mask.

According to Reuters, Sotheby’s disclosed that the token was purchased by Israeli entrepreneur Shalom Mackenzie, who is also the largest stakeholder in digital sports business DraftKings.

5. LarvaLabs’ CryptoPunk #5822 (USD 23.7 million)

LarvaLabs’ CryptoPunk #5822

LarvaLabs’s CryptoPunks has been making waves in the NFT making with a series of big sales being recorded. One of the CryptoPunk series, #5822 made a record-breaking sale after being sold for approximately $23.7 million (8,000 ETH).

CryptoPunk #5822 is one of the 9 alien punks in the series. And also amongst one of the 333 CryptoPunks that wears a bandana in the NFT project. This CryptoPunk was purchased by Deepak Thapliyal, the CEO of Chain, also known as Deepak.eth.

4. Beeple’s Human One (USD 28.9 million)

Beeple’s Human One

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Another release from Beeple that’s made the list of the top 5 most expensive NFT sales of all time is the “Human One” project. This NFT project is a hybrid physical and digital artwork that features a generative sculpture called the HUMAN ONE.

The project is a combination of a dynamic NFT with a kinetic video sculpture designed to display an artwork continuously and could evolve with time.

This masterpiece was sold in an auction —  Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale — for a whopping $28.9 million. The current owner of the Human One artwork is Ryan Zurrer. And even though the artwork has been sold, Beeple still retains the creative control and remote access to this work.

3. Assange and Pak’s Clock NFT (USD 52.7 million)

Assange and Pak’s Clock NFT

As a response to Assange — the publisher and editor of WikiLeaks — facing the possibility of extradition to the US and 175 years in jail, the Clock NFT was created as a method to raise money to fund his defense.

The Clock NFT was created under a partnership between Pak (an anonymous digital artist) and Assange. This piece is a single NFT artwork that indicates the period in which Assange was jailed. And was sold as a dynamic open edition that’s part of Pak & Assange’s Censored collection.

Clock NFT is not owned by a single person but by an organization called the AssangeDAO. The AssangeDAO is a community of over 10,000 Assange supporters who jointly raised the funds to purchase the NFT for 16,953 ETH ($52.7 million). This organization was specifically created as a fundraiser team to purchase the artwork.

2. Beeple’s Everyday Series: The First 5000 Days (USD 69 million)

Beeple's Everyday Series

The First 5000 Days is a series of NFT created by Mike Winkelmann, a digital artist popularly known as Beeple.  This series is a collage featuring 5000 digital artworks that were made by  Winkelmann.

The Everyday Series was sold at Christie’s for $69 million to an Indian cryptocurrency investor, Vignesh Sundaresan, who’s also known as MetaKovan. This sale earned Beeple a place among the top three most valuable living artists.

1. Pak’s “The Merge” (USD 91.8 million)

The Merge is the most expensive NFT art of all time and it sold at a whooping sum of USD 91 million.

See the start of our article for more information on this NFT.

The Most Expensive NFTs Summary

Conclusion

The NFT market has recorded some impressive transactions that have shocked the world and changed how people view these digital arts. And it seems there is, even more, to expect from the market as more people are taking interest in NFTs.

If you’ll ask me the perfect time to join the NFT train, I’ll tell you to do so right away!


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