11 Most Expensive NFTs Ever Sold : Top List [2024]

You might all be aware of what NFTs are and here we will discuss the most expensive NFTs sold by 2023. NFTs are the new source of investment and a lot of people have made millions through investing and selling NFTs.

Nowadays, we rarely see NFTs getting sold in millions. Despite the price drop and a lot of scams that have come out in the recent few months about NFTs. It is really amazing to see the price people pay for NFTs. So here is the list of the top 11 most expensive NFTs sold.

Most Expensive NFTs

The possible trend of NFTs has begun to wind down in the wake of encountering an upsurge in notoriety in 2021 and 2022. Instead of having a million-dollar value, major NFT sales from the previous two years now have a dollar value.

Some items, like the hardware needed for the blockchain, have finally returned to stock at somewhat regular prices as a result of the unfortunate situation.

Merge, a digital artwork by Pak, sold for $91.8 million on the NFT platform Nifty Gateway in December 2021. Consequently, the NFT broke the previous record for the most expensive piece of living artist art ever sold.

Nevertheless, depending on whether Merge is seen as a single component, the assertion that it is the most expensive NFT is questionable. 

Tokens from the artwork started at $299, increasing by $25 every six hours. In total, 312,686 NFTs were sold to 28,983 collectors, raising $91.8 million.

For more than 20 years, Pak, a pseudonymous artist (or artist collective), has influenced digital art and media. He is most known for developing Architect, an AI designed to find and exchange works of art.

Pak’s NFT collection, The Fungible Collection, was auctioned by Sotheby’s and Nifty Gateway in early 2022 for US$16.8 million.

This creation, which is effectively a collage of 5000 pieces of Beeple’s work, is an example of the high caliber and widespread esteem for which he is known for his artwork. He decided to produce one work of art every day beginning in 2007, and this is the outcome.

Without a doubt, the work was worthwhile. It was sold to Vignesh Sundaresan, a crypto investor located in Singapore who runs his own NFT business called Metapurse. 

According to reports, Clock was made to raise money for Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to support his legal defense against possible extradition to the US. The object was a clock that displayed Assange’s length of detention. **Subsequently**, the NFT was eventually bought by The AssangeDAO for US$52.7 million, a group with over 10,000 members that calls themselves the ‘Free Julian Assange’ movement.

Possibly showing the possible social impact of an NFT, this NFT is more than just a work of digital art.

On November 9, 2021, HUMAN ONE was sold at Christie’s 21st Century Art Evening Sale for US$28.985 million. A physical sculpture that incorporates a dynamically changing generative work of art was added to the NFT.

A looping film of an astronaut moving through various locations is displayed on four digital displays in this “kinetic video sculpture” made of polished aluminum alloy and a wood frame. 

The NFT that accompanied the sculpture showed an astronaut traveling through several landscapes; the settings would alter depending on the time of day. In HUMAN ONE, Beeple also left hints for people to uncover in order to unlock further NFTs. 

In addition to establishing Beeple as one of the most productive artists in the business, the physical artwork and the matched NFT have become one of the most costly NFT items ever sold.

Beeple, who Christie’s dubbed “the world’s most famous digital artist,” declared that he is committed to the work and intends to keep expanding and changing it throughout his career in order to increase public awareness of NFTs.

CryptoPunks have grown to be some of the most costly and sought-after NFTs since they were first made available as one of the very first NFT collections. Users just had to pay the petrol price to obtain a CryptoPunk when they first became available for free.

The project was started in 2017 by two Canadian software developers under the name Larva Labs. It was influenced by Daft Punk, the cyberpunk movement, and the London punk scene. Intellectual property rights of the CyberPunks project were bought by Yuga Labs.

When it sold for more than $23 million on February 12, 2022, 5822, a CryptoPunk in the ‘alien’ style that has become increasingly popular, defied all predictions. As twice as much as the following most noteworthy CryptoPunk, 5822 may have quite recently raised the whole NFT assortment further higher.

The unique qualities of Cryptopunk #7523, one of the nine ultra-rare aliens, plus the fact that it is the only crypto to wear a surgical mask—which is strikingly reminiscent of the pandemic—make it valuable. And the more valuable a piece of art is, the rarer and more distinctive it is.

The enduringly popular CryptoPunks dominate the list, making #4156 the third most expensive Punk ever. It was purchased on December 9, 2021, just ten months after a $1.25 million sale. That was the very amazing return on investment.

Just one day after #7804 which is now the 4th highest sold NFT. It was sold on 11 March 2021. #3100 rose in value above its contemporaries. #3100 is another Alien punk which is the seventh-rarest CryptoPunk out there, wearing only a headband this time.

If we utilize ether tokens, this is Larva Labs’ fourth most expensive NFT. The exponential value of this CryptoPunk is explained by the fact that it is one of the nine alien punks.

Moreover, he stands out with unique features like a pipe, beret, and sunglasses. Among the 10,000 CryptoPunks, only 378 smoke pipes, 317 have different skin tones, and 254 wear forward hats.

A price of 6.93 million dollars or 2,100 ether was paid for this Art Blocks collection item. A sum of 99,000 NFTs is gathered in this Workmanship Block assortment. The Art Block NFTs are so popular because they are generatively designed collectibles, especially on-demand art.

NFTs can be expensive due to several factors:

• Rarity: Second, it is seen that unique or limited NFTs are always more valuable than standard NFTs in most cases.
• Artist or Creator: Celebrities and other famous artists or designers can easily charge more for their NFTs.
• Utility: Additional utility that comes with purchasing an NFT, such as invites to behind-the-scenes or other related content, increases the price of an NFT.
• Market Demand: Elementary, the combined demand for a specific NFT or collection in question can spike the prices forward.
• Speculation: Some sorts of investors may use the purchase of an NFT with the expectation that its price will rise over time.

This further points to the fact that the value of NFTs is not fixed, and thus one cannot be assured of great returns in the future.