Honestly, when I look at the sales history of the most expensive NFTs, I am amazed at the scale of sums people are willing to pay for digital artworks. This is no longer just a trend — it’s a full-fledged market with its own logic and hierarchy.

Let’s start with Pak’s The Merge. Sold in December 2021 for $91.8 million. It sounds like a fabrication, but the point is that it’s not a single NFT, but a system. Buyers purchased “masses” — pieces of the artwork that combined into a whole. In the end, 28,893 collectors bought 312,686 units at $575 each. Now that’s an innovative sales approach.

Then there’s Beeple with his Everydays: The First 5000 Days — $69 million at Christie’s auction in March 2021. The guy created one digital art piece a day for five thousand days straight, then compiled everything into one collage. The starting price was $100. Wow! And then bids soared to $69 million. This shows how an artist’s reputation and consistency can drastically influence value.

Clock — another masterpiece by Pak, created together with Julian Assange. The NFT contains a timer counting down the days of Assange’s detention, and it updates automatically every day. AssangeDAO bought it for $52.7 million in February 2022. This is no longer just art — it’s a political manifesto embedded in the blockchain.

And then there’s Human One by Beeple — a kinetic sculpture over 7 feet tall with a 16K display, operating 24/7 and showing different images depending on the time of day. Sold for $29 million in November 2021. Beeple can remotely update its content, turning it into a living piece of art.

Now, about CryptoPunks — that’s a whole separate story. Launched in 2017, 10,000 unique avatars on Ethereum. Initially given away for free, now the rarest ones sell for tens of millions. CryptoPunk #5822 (инопланетный панк) ушёл за 23 миллиона. CryptoPunk #7523 — the only alien punk in a medical mask — sold for $11.75 million at Sotheby’s. CryptoPunk #4156 (a monkey) was sold for $10.26 million, although just 10 months earlier it was worth $1.25 million. That’s volatility!

There are also other expensive NFTs. TPunk #3442 — производная от CryptoPunks в блокчейне Tron — приобрёл CEO Tron Джастин Сан за 10,5 миллиона долларов. Ringers #109 by Dmitry Chernyak — generative art on Art Blocks — sold for $6.93 million. Right-click and Save As Guy by XCOPY (a crypto artist with a dystopian style) — $7 million.

Interestingly, the highest total sales volume is led by Axie Infinity ($4.27 billion) and Bored Ape Yacht Club ($3.16 billion). These are collections that have become cult icons.

What’s striking about this market? Behind every expensive NFT is a unique story, an artist with their vision, and often an innovative approach to sales or concepts. It’s no longer just speculation. It’s a recognition that digital art has real value.

Yes, 95% of NFTs are practically valueless, but those that do have value become milestones in digital art history. And it seems the most expensive NFTs in history are just the beginning. The market is evolving, new artists and concepts are emerging. It will be interesting to see what new records will be set in the coming months.