I've just been exploring the wildest NFT sales of recent years — and honestly, the prices are sometimes absolutely insane. There are actually works that change hands for over $90 million. Fascinating how the digital art world has exploded.

The most expensive NFT ever is still Pak's "The Merge" — $91.8 million in December 2021. But here’s the interesting part: it wasn’t just one person paying that crazy price. Instead, nearly 29,000 collectors bought over 312,000 units collectively, each for about $575. The more units you bought, the larger your share of the whole piece. An innovative model that no one really expected back then.

Then there’s Beeple with "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" — $69 million at Christie's in March 2021. The guy created a digital artwork every day for 5,000 days and assembled them into a huge collage. It’s not just expensive; it’s an incredible achievement. Especially wild: the starting price was only $100. Then the community drove the price up.

Pak also has another masterpiece — "The Clock," in collaboration with Julian Assange. A dynamic artwork that documents the number of days Assange has been in custody. The timer updates daily. AssangeDAO (over 100,000 members) bought the NFT for $52.7 million — and the proceeds went directly to Assange’s legal defense. This shows how NFTs can also be used for political and social causes.

Beeple’s "Human One" is also remarkable — $29 million. It’s a real sculpture with a 16K display that constantly shows changing videos. And here’s the crazy part: Beeple can update the artwork remotely. It’s a living piece of art that evolves over time. It’s not just a static image — it’s innovation.

Now, onto CryptoPunks — they dominate the list of the most expensive NFTs massively. CryptoPunk #5822 (an alien with blue skin) sold for $23 million. Only 9 alien Punks exist in total, making them extremely rare. Then CryptoPunk #7523 with a medical mask — $11.75 million. That was a record for Punks in 2021.

But there are more Punks among the top sales: #4156 (ein Affe mit Bandana) für 10,26 Millionen, #5577 (also a monkey) for $7.7 million, #3100 (Alien) für 7,67 Millionen, #7804 (alien with a pipe and hat) for $7.57 million, and #8857 (a zombie Punk) for $6.63 million. The CryptoPunks series is simply legendary — 10,000 unique avatars originally distributed for free to Ethereum users in 2017. Now some are worth millions.

There are also other interesting works: TPunk #3442 — "The Joker" — bought by Tron CEO Justin Sun for $10.5 million. It’s a CryptoPunks derivative on the Tron blockchain. XCOPY sold "Right-Click and Save As Guy" for $7 million to Cozomo de' Medici, one of the most legendary NFT collectors. And Dmitri Cherniak’s "Ringers #109" (generative art) for $6.93 million.

Beeple also had "Crossroad" — $6.6 million in February 2021. It was a 10-second film reacting to the 2020 US election, with two different endings. At the time, it set an absolute record for an NFT.

What I find interesting: the most expensive NFTs aren’t just pretty pictures. It’s about rarity, history, innovation, and the artist behind them. Pak and Beeple have understood how to create digital artworks that hold value — not just hype, but genuine artistic achievement.

CryptoPunks also show how timing is everything. Those who got a Punk for free in 2017 and held onto it are now sitting on millions. That’s obviously luck, but also a sign that early NFT projects with real innovation can hold long-term value.

Sure, the NFT market is volatile. 95 percent of NFTs are practically worthless. But the works that succeed — those with real artistic value, rarity, or innovative concepts — can actually become some of the most expensive digital assets. And this is just the beginning. With artificial intelligence and new technologies, we’ll probably see even crazier things.

If you’re interested in digital art, you should check out these works. Not to invest blindly, but to understand how the digital art world works and why artists like Pak and Beeple achieve such prices. It’s truly fascinating.