Recently, I was reviewing the sales history of NFTs, and honestly, I was surprised to see how some of these digital collectibles have reached absolutely astronomical prices. We’re talking about numbers that seem like they came straight out of a science fiction movie.

Let’s start with the most obvious: Pak’s The Merge is still the most expensive NFT ever sold. It closed at $91.8 million back in December 2021. The wild part is that it wasn’t a traditional sale to a single buyer. In reality, more than 28,000 collectors bought different quantities, totaling 312,000 units. Each unit cost around $575. Pak came up with a unique sales model where the more units you accumulated, the greater your share in the artwork. That innovative concept is what really drove the final price.

Next is Beeple with Everydays: The First 5000 Days. This digital artist (Michael Winkelmann is his real name) created a massive collage compiling 5,000 individual works he had made over 5,000 consecutive days. It was sold at Christie’s for $69 million in March 2021. The buyer was Vignesh Sundaresan, a cryptocurrency programmer known as MetaKovan, who paid with approximately 42,000 ETH. What’s interesting is that the piece started with an initial price of just $100, but the bids exploded quickly.

Pak reappeared on the list with The Clock, a collaboration with Julian Assange. It’s a work that contains a timer recording Assange’s days in captivity, automatically updating each day. AssangeDAO, a collective of more than 10,000 supporters, acquired it for $52.7 million in February 2022. Beyond the price, what makes this most expensive NFT in its category special is its political and social significance.

Beeple also has Human One, a 16K kinetic sculpture that runs 24/7 and constantly evolves. It measures more than 2 meters, and it features a dystopian background projected across four walls that changes according to the time of day. Christie’s auctioned it for nearly $29 million in November 2021. Beeple can update it remotely, turning it into a living work of art.

As for CryptoPunks, that 2017 project from Larva Labs is still a phenomenon. The CryptoPunk #5822, un Alien Punk de piel azul (uno de solo nueve), se vendió por 23 millones. El #7523, another alien but with a medical mask, reached $11.75 million at Sotheby’s. The #4156, un punk con forma de simio, se fue por 10.26 millones. El #5577, also a monkey, sold for $7.7 million. The #3100, otro alien, por 7.67 millones. El #7804, with a pipe, a hat, and sunglasses, sold for $7.57 million. The #8857, a Zombie Punk, sold for $6.63 million.

TPunk #3442, known as “The Joker,” was bought by Justin Sun, CEO of Tron, for $10.5 million in August 2021. It’s a derivative of CryptoPunks on the Tron blockchain.

Dmitri Cherniak created Ringers, a series of generative art on Art Blocks. Ringers #109 became the most expensive NFT on the entire Art Blocks platform when it sold for $6.93 million.

XCOPY, that anonymous crypto artist, sold Right-click and Save As Guy for $7 million. The buyer was Cozomo de’ Medici, one of the most prestigious collectors in the space. The piece is a joke about how people think they can download NFTs by right-clicking.

And we can’t forget Beeple’s Crossroad from February 2021, a 10-second short film responding to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. It sold for $6.6 million on Nifty Gateway.

What’s fascinating is to see how the NFT market has evolved. Axie Infinity as a collection accumulated $4.27 billion in total volume, and BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club) reached $3.16 billion. These numbers show that even though the market is volatile, certain NFTs have maintained their value—or even increased it.

Honestly, today’s market is very different from 2021–2022. But these historic sales are still a benchmark for what was possible back then. Each of these most expensive NFTs has its own story, its unique creator—and that’s what truly makes them valuable to collectors.