The Top 5 Most Valuable NFTs of All Time & Reasons Behind Their Worth

Since their inception non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have changed the cryptocurrency industry completely, and redefined how asset ownership can be proved across a multitude of industries.

Essentially, non-fungible tokens are unique cryptographic assets stored and tradeable on a blockchain that use identifiers and metadata to make them unique from one another. These assets cannot be replaced, which is unlike a fungible tokens that can be exchanged for one another without any change in value. 

An NFT contains a digital record of ownership locked into a smart contract that counts as the NFT, and are often used to represent digital assets of value, such as collectibles, gaming items, and art.

As their popularity grows, many are now asking… why are investors paying multi-million dollar sums for a single digital collectible? Let’s find out.

First, their value can be derived from their uniqueness. Every NFT created is different, and holds a unique signature that can be registered to one wallet at any time.This creates natural scarcity in NFTs, as owning a particularly coveted one from a prominent artist or collection can be proven – meaning you’ll be the only holder, provably, of the NFT.

The scarcity factor also comes from a limited supply of a collection. If a coveted collection has a relatively low supply (e.g 10,000), then owning one can be representative of access to a particular community or a status symbol within the space. This is comparable to ownership of rare cards such as Baseball or Pokemon cards, limited edition vehicles and sports memorabilia.

The matter of status is important too, as if the NFT you own has rare “traits” that make it more exclusive or made by a popular artist, you are often perceived as a prestigious collector within the space, and with that, comes status. As you’ll see in the list below, NFTs from the most popular creators, and showing that you own it either on a social profile or through another means, can cause NFTs to go for astronomical sums.

Essentially, the value of an NFT is determined by factors such as its scarcity, demand, artistic or sentimental value and the reputation of the creator. NFTs have gained significant attention in the art world, as they enable artists to tokenize and sell their digital creations directly to collectors. This has opened up new avenues for artists to monetize their work and for collectors to own unique pieces of digital art.

Here’s a list of the top 5 most expensive NFTs ever sold:

CryptoPunks were one of the first high-profile NFT collections released, and have since featured some of the most expensive NFTs ever sold. Originally free when they were released, Punk #5822 is the biggest CryptoPunks NFT purchase in history, costing the buyer 8,000 ETH at the time of purchase. 

What makes it so expensive is that it’s one of 9 (out of the 10,000 collection) “Alien” punks, which makes it one of the most desirable traits in the entire collection.

Other cryptoPunks have also sold in the millions, including CryptoPunk #3100 for US$7.67m, CryptoPunk #4156 for US$10.26m and CryptoPunk #7523 for US$11.75m.

The artwork, which also comes in digital form, is from prominent digital creator Beeple and features a “lone astronaut, forever striding through the wastes of a vaguely familiar world” that is capable of changing its visuals based on the time of day.

The HUMAN ONE NFT was sold at auction for US$28.985 million on 9 November 2021 and includes a digital option, which showed the astronaut travelling through different settings based on the time of day, and a physical option – a physical sculpture with four digital screens showing a loop of an astronaut walking through different environments. 

It’s reported that the blend of physical and digital art alongside the prestige associated with Beeple is what saw the NFT sell for such a high price.

Designed and released by digital artist Pak, Clock displays the time period in days that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanage had been imprisoned for. The NFT was purchased for $52.7m by the AssangeDAO, a group of over 10,000 members working to free Julian Assanage. The proceeds of the sale went towards funding the legal expenses and costs associated with freeing Assange.

The NFT reached the premium price tag due to the social cause behind the art and its impact on real-world issues.

The second NFT on our list from Mike ‘Beeple’ Winkelmann, The First 5000 Days is a collage of over 5,000 pieces of art that were created once a day by Winkelmann since May 2007. 

It sold at auction for $69.3m, and worked to establish Beeple as the leading digital artist and creator in the NFT space. Additionally, the sale of The First 5000 Days marked the first time that a piece of art had been sold using crytocurrency in a mainstream auction setting.

The NFT reached the high price tag due to its unique concept, the popularity of the artist and the longevity and effort that went into creating the artwork.

Merge, from digital artist Pak, fetched an incredible price tag of US$91.8 million in December 2021, and set a new record for the most expensive artwork ever sold by a living artist. 

The Merge enabled investors to purchase “tokens” from the artwork at a starting price of $299 before increasing in price, dutch auction style, until the end of the sale. At the end, an estimated 29,000 collectors bought 312,686 total NFTs from the collection.

The NFT reached its record-breaking price tag thanks to the use of a dynamic, on-chain unique token mechanism called ‘merge’. The images investors bought are circles of different sizes and represent different masses. The key selling point was that the more you owned, the bigger your circle get – essentially representing a form of digital status in the size of your bubble.

There are many popular collections within the NFT space that fetch large amounts, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks and many more.

The most popular by volume and trading floor price (the minimum price you can pay to purchase one) is the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which currently have a floor price of an estimated 45 ETH ($75k). At their peak floor price, Bored Apes traded for an incredible 116 ETH (estimated $340k at the time), with assets with rarer traits in the collection fetching prices of upwards of $500k at their peak.

CryptoPunks, which we covered earlier, have also driven massive amounts of volume into the NFT space. They traded at a peak of 100 ETH in 2021 and currently trade at a 50 ETH floor price. Respectively, the collections have contributed to over 2m ETH in volume, which equates to $3.3bn in trading volume since their launch!

It’s clear that demand for digital art and collectables is there based on the above sales, but is the cycle sustainable? Following these sales, which were all made between 2020-2022, volume and high-ticket sales has declined across the space. However, as with most things crypto, trends are cyclical, and in the future, we may see a new wave of premium NFT sales hitting the market in the next 5-10 years.

This publication is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a solicitation, offering or recommendation of any security, commodity, derivative, investment management service or advisory service and is not digital asset or cryptocurrency trading advice. This publication does not intend to provide investment, tax or legal advice on either a general or specific basis.