Honestly - when I look at the NFT market history, I am always fascinated by how wild these prices can be at times. Especially with artworks that change hands for ten- or even ninety-figure sums.

The most expensive NFT ever sold is definitely Pak's The Merge. December 2021, Nifty Gateway. $91.8 million. But here’s the kicker: it wasn’t just one person buying all of it. Nearly 29,000 collectors shared over 312,000 units in total. Each unit cost $575 at the time. The concept was simply brilliant – the more units you bought, the larger your share of the whole piece. No wonder this approach attracted so many.

Then there’s Beeple with his "Everydays: The First 5000 Days." March 2021 at Christie's for $69 million. The starting price was ridiculous – only $100. But Beeple’s name, his popularity in the crypto world, the collage of 5,000 individual daily artworks – all together drove the price up. A programmer from Singapore named MetaKovan snapped up the piece for 42,329 ETH.

What also impresses me: Pak’s "The Clock," an artwork about Julian Assange counting the days of his detention. The timer updates daily. In February 2022, AssangeDAO paid $52.7 million for it. This isn’t just art – it’s a political statement. The most expensive NFT in this category shows how NFTs go beyond mere collectibles.

Beeple managed to make the list multiple times. "Human One" – a 16K video sculpture, over two meters tall, with a silver figure and space helmet. November 2021, Christie's, $29 million. The special thing: Beeple can update the piece remotely. It’s a living artwork that changes.

Then there are CryptoPunks. The project is considered one of the pioneers of the NFT movement. CryptoPunk #5822 - ein blaues Alien, eines von nur neun dieser Art - 23 Millionen Dollar. CryptoPunk #7523 with a mask, also an alien, $11.75 million. The rarity of these pieces drives prices upward. There’s also #4156, an ape punk with a bandana, $10.26 million. Crazy that this thing was only $1.25 million ten months ago.

Tpunk #3442 – "The Joker" – was an interesting story. Justin Sun bought it for 120 million TRX (then $10.5 million). Suddenly, the entire community became interested in Tpunks. It became the most expensive NFT on the Tron blockchain.

XCOPY’s "Right-Click and Save As Guy" for $7 million – a piece about the irony of NFTs. Cozomo de' Medici bought it. A work that started in 2018 for 1 ETH (about $90).

Dmitri Cherniak’s "Ringers #109" on Art Blocks – $6.93 million. Generative art, 1,000 NFTs in this series, with the cheapest still costing $88,000.

And then Beeple’s "Crossroad" – $6.6 million in February 2021. A 10-second film about the 2020 US election. That was an absolute shock moment for the art world at the time. NFTs weren’t even mainstream yet, and suddenly someone paid $6.6 million for a video.

What I notice: The most expensive NFTs aren’t just randomly costly. They have a story, a renowned artist, uniqueness, or cultural significance. Pak and Beeple dominate this list because they understood what NFTs can be – not just images to collect, but artworks with substance.

The market has obviously changed since 2021-2022. But these works remain historically significant. They show where the digital art world can go. Will NFTs still be that valuable in five years? No idea. But they definitely have a place in art history, that’s for sure.