Tokens that are not fungible are known as NFTs. Money is an example of a fungible asset, which means it can be interchanged readily with another form of value. The value of a £10 note is the same when it is swapped for two £5 notes.
It is impossible, however, for something to be non-fungible – it means it does not have any properties that can be exchanged for something else. The house could be one of a kind, or the painting could be a one-of-a-kind masterpiece like the Mona Lisa. The original painting can never be reproduced, only a photograph or a print will ever be available. As digital assets, NFTs are unique and can be purchased and sold, but do not have a physical form of their own. A digital token can be regarded as a certificate of ownership for a virtual or physical asset.
How much are NFTs worth?
It’s as wild as it sounds but yes, people are paying millions of dollars for NFTs
In theory, anybody can tokenize their work to be sold as an NFT, but the recent headlines about millions of dollars in sales have sparked interest.
More than $500k was paid for a 2011 meme of a flying pop tart cat called Nyan Cat, which was animated in GIF form.
Some of Grimes’ digital artwork was sold a few weeks later for more than $6 million.
There is more to tokenization and selling than art. The first tweet was auctioned off by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey for $2.5 million.
In the years since Christie’s sold an NFT by Beeple for $69m (£50m), digital art sales have reached new heights.
The environmental impacts of maintaining a blockchain are the same as for crypto-currencies.
Listed below are the ten most expensive and quirkiest NFTs on the market, and the reasons why these NFTs are valuable:
NFTs such as unique digital assets, songs, images, collectibles, GIFs, or memes are more than eagerly sought after by the crypto community. The industry is rapidly evolving from the last few months, as they are voraciously purchasing various non-fungible tokens for investment purposes.
The NFT marketplaces made a lot of money in February with sales exceeding $300 million, and the NFT marketplaces surely make a lot of money on top of the work of others. The sale of these NFTs is helping even newer platforms gain traction.
In spite of all of these sales, it begs the question: which NFT is currently the most expensive? Throughout this article, we’ll explain why NFTs are so expensive and list the ten most expensive NFTs.
1. Everydays: the First 5000 Days – $69.3 million
As you might expect, Beeple hasn’t been as popular as you think before last year. Nevertheless, he sold one of the most expensive NFT artworks in 2021. “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” is the title of the artwork. More interestingly, this auction took place at Christie’s.
It began with a $100 bidding war, but the prices went up and up. It ended up being sold for a price of $69.3 million! This may seem like a lot for a piece of digital art. With the technological revolution, wouldn’t it be evident that digital paintings will soon replace physical ones.
As a result, this art work is a synthesis of Beeple’s first 5000 digital artworks. Beeple actually created digital art in May 2007 and hasn’t missed a single day since then. Consequently, the collection contains a wide range of styles, content, and mediums. As a collective, the value increases immensely despite some of the very first ones being below standards. So it is no wonder that this was one of the most expensive NFTs ever sold. A non-fungible token like this would surely be valuable in 2021.
2. CryptoPunk #3100 – $7.58 Million
CryptoPunks is a completely new way to create in the world of NFT. Those were the very first NFTs ever created, and many are currently sold for millions thanks to the NFT boom. In fact, it is the second most expensive NFT ever sold, which is why we put CryptoPunk #3100 on our list as well.
CryptoPunks are actually one of the rarest creatures on Earth, and this one is one of the nine aliens. There are only 10,000 punks in stock at CryptoPunks. There are only 9 aliens among them. This makes these 9 collections among the rarest in the museum. Additionally, they follow the standards of the ERC-20 standard.
It comes with an accessory and has a blue-greenish skin tone. There are only 406 punks who own this headband, in this case a headband. This is further reinforced by the fact that only 333 punks have a single accessory, which is also rare. This punk, judging by its type, accessories, and accessory counts, is extremely rare. Due to this, it was sold at an asking price of $7.58 million.
3. CryptoPunk #7804 – $7.57 Million
The seventh most expensive NFT in our top 10 list is CryptoPunk, with $7.57 million. There are three accessories included with this Alien, and it is the Punk #7804. More specifically, the accessories consist of a Pipe, Small Shades, and a Cap Forward. There are 254 punks who wear caps forward, 378 punks who wear pipes, and 317 punks who wear small shades. Fundamentally, the prices are high because Alien punks are so scarce.
At the beginning of the 10,000 CryptoPunks giveaway, Dylan Field re-introduced punk to the company. The startup he owns is Figma, a technology design company. He bought a punk, but why? Well, he saw the potential for this NFT based on Ethereum in 2018, so he decided to purchase it back then.
4. Crossroads – $6.6 Million
Another expensive NFT is Crossroads. It was just days before the massive sale of Beeple’s Everydays when this artwork was sold. Moreover, this piece was sold in Nifty Gateway. The work is a single piece of artwork, not a compilation like Everydays. As a result, it is even more expensive because of its appraisal.
In a way, the artwork represents a political gamble involving a presidential election in 2020. Interestingly, the artist created two different versions of this – one if Trump won and one if Trump lost. Video would change depending on the outcome of the election.
5. The first Tweet – $2.9 Million
Next, we have a look at the very first tweet to make our 2021 list of most expensive NFTs. Rather, it was Twitter’s founder and CEO Jack Dorsey who posted the first tweet shortly after launching the service in 2006. Tweet read, “just setting up my Twitter account.” He sold that tweet as an NFT later on for $2.9 million! Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms out there, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the very first tweet would garner so much attention. Asset tokenization is a relatively new concept.
Anyway, the founder bought this tweet from Oracle CEO Sina Estav, who deemed it as significant as buying a Mona Lisa. A more important point is that the CEO sold this tweet on the auction website Valuables. It is prohibited for them to take more than 5% of the sales price. Though it will remain on Twitter, the piece’s owner now belongs to Sina.
6. CryptoPunk #6965 – $1.54 Million
The punks are back in our list of top-selling NFTs in 2021. Every cryptopunk has their own unique attributes and characteristics, as we said before. Punks are no different from that, so all of them are punk. We can see here that CryptoPunk #6965 is a species of ape. In addition to Fedora, the device comes with a USB cable. The number of Fedora-wearing punks is 186, while Ape-wearing punks are 24. The price is $1.54 million because of this! But they aren’t ERC-721 tokens. Rather, they’re ERC-20 tokens.
7. Axie Infinity Genesis Land – $1.5 Million
Virtual games can be expensive, especially if you want to buy in-game items. However, the virtual game Axie Infinity, which runs on Ethereum, may have surpassed it. The Genesis Land in the game is rather rare, and its price is high. Yet a community member just invested $1.5 million in nine Genesis blocks. Consequently, it will become the most expensive NFT in 2021.
While it was worth 888.25 Ether when it was sold, it has increased significantly since then due to the rise in Ether’s price.
8. CryptoPunk #4156 – $1.25 Million
Lastly, we have CryptoPunk #4156, which we think is the most expensive NFT sold in history. Here we are again with another CryptoPunk. The next Ape punk wears a blue bandana as an accessory. There are only 481 punks with this feature among the 10,000 punks. Then it became the property of Ethereum address 0xf476cd for $1.25 million. If you want to invest in some CryptoPunks as well, remember that you will need Ethereum Gas to buy them.
9. Not Forgotten, But Gone – $1 Million
Do you have a million-dollar budget for a rotating gummy bear video? It appears that Nifty Gateway NFT sales followed this pattern. The artist who created this artwork is called WhIsBe. According to him, there are many creative forms he uses to display gummy bears. There is an even more interesting video of a rotating golden gummy bear skeleton that is called “Not Forgotten, But Gone.” The artist sold this piece for one million dollars.
10. Metarift- $904.41K
As it isn’t known who is the artist, it is a Satoshi situation here. No one knows who Pak is, but he goes by that name. The piece was sold for $904.41K because of its mystery and popularity within the digital art ecosystem. NFT art displays rotating spheres that are grouped together and rotate in different directions. There are a variety of other NFT uses like this, they are not limited to art!
2021- The year of NFTs
Clearly, 2021 is the year for NFTs, as the NFT market has grown drastically in the last few months. Many NFTs began going for millions just right after 2021 got underway. In this age of digital revolution, NFTs make perfect sense, even though they may appear to be a fad to some.
Having learned about the most expensive NFTs on the market, you can also take a shot at them. It is important to remember, however, that these tokens rely on the blockchain technology, so this is the perfect time to learn more about blockchain. For those interested in learning more about Blockchain, we recommend signing up for our blockchain courses.