The top-selling NFTs of all time. | Credit: Noam Galai/Getty Images
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Key Takeaways
NFTs have recorded over $71 billion in all-time sales volumes.
Axie Infinity is the most successful NFT collection with over $4.29 billion in sales.
Experts predict that CryptoPunks could outperform Ethereum this cycle.
Since their inception in 2017, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become one of the most polarizing aspects of crypto and Web3, but that didn’t stop people from spending millions of dollars to buy them.
Here’s a rundown of the top 5 NFT sales in history.
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Mike Winkelmann, aka “Beeple”, created a gigantic collage featuring 5,000 of his first works.
Beeple: The First 500 Days | Source: Christie’s.
Appropriately named “The First 5000 Days”, the NFT was sold at a Christie’s auction. It opened at $100 on Feb. 25, 2021, ending on March 11 after days of intense bidding.
It eventually sold for an eye-watering $69.3 million to crypto-investor and entrepreneur, Vignes Sundaresan, aka “MetaKovan.”
To date, it is the single largest NFT sale ever made. And, the third-most expensive artwork ever sold at an auction by a living artist.
The buyer placed it on display within a metaverse virtual art museum for the world to see.
This, alongside 20 other Beeple artworks acquired by MetaKovan.
Interestingly, MetaKovan’s team issued a token called B20, which would grant holders a stake in its Beeple collection.
After raising its market cap to a peak of $53.2 million at the end of March 2021, the token almost immediately collapsed, and now carries a market cap of just over $409,000.
Clock
“Clock” is a rather unique NFT from the anonymous creator “Pak,” and originally counted the number of days that WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, had spent imprisoned.
Now, it counts the number of days he’s been free.
Clock NFT | Source: Clock NFT
It was created in collaboration between Assange and Pak, and sold in February 2022 for 16,593 Ethereum (ETH), or roughly $52.7 million.
It was sold to a collective of 10,000 people, namely the Julian Assange Defense Organization (AssangeDAO), which raised the funds to acquire the NFT.
Creator Pak would go on to donate the entirety of the funds to Assange’s legal case, ultimately playing a role in securing his release.
HUMAN ONE
Beeple’s “HUMAN ONE” is a unique hybrid artwork that combines physical and digital art in an always-on high-resolution video sculpture of an astronaut displayed in a glass box, which changes every 24 hours, with Beeple himself providing the evolving updates.
Beeple’s “HUMAN ONE” | Source: Christie’s.
The piece was sold for $28.95 million at a Christie’s auction in November 2021 to Ryan Zurrer, a Web3 entrepreneur and technologist.
Since its sale, HUMAN ONE has travelled the world, finding itself on exhibition at art galleries in Italy, Hong Kong, and the U.S.
CryptoPunk #5822
CryptoPunks, a collection of 10,000 pixelated headshots of ‘punk’ characters, were launched in 2017 by Larva Labs, and were initially free for anyone with an ETH wallet to claim.
CryptoPunk #5822 | Source: CryptoPunks
This particular CryptoPunk NFT is just one of nine punks with the “alien” trait in the collection, which gives its skin that blueish hue.
CryptoPunk #5822 sold for $23.4 million in 2022 to Chain.com founder Deepak Thapilyal. Interestingly, the NFT was sold for just $1684.23 to an unknown user 5 years prior.
As per OpenSea, the NFT is currently valued at $21.97 million.
CryptoPunk #7523
CryptoPunk #7523 is another particularly rare member of the set as it carries the “alien” trait, plus a “medical mask,” making it the only one in the collection with this combination.
CryptoPunk #7523 | Credit: CryptoPunks.
This CryptoPunk previously held the record for the most valuable NFT sold from the project after being purchased for $11.75 million in June 2021 by a user named “SillyTuna” via the Sotheby’s online auction platform.
It was first sold for $1,646 in 2017.
Much of its value stemmed from its rare trait combo, but also, with the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, the face mask became more symbolic.
CryptoPunks has gone on to become one of the most successful NFT collections in the world, having recorded over $4.29 billion in trading volume since launching.
Honorable Mention
The Merge
Many sites report 2021’s “The Merge” by Pak as the highest-selling NFT in the world, as it yielded $91.8 million.
However, it’s not a singular NFT in the traditional sense; it’s a collection of “masses”, which are separate NFTs representing a portion of The Merge.
The more “masses” a person owned, the larger their share of The Merge became.
It was initially purchased by 28,983 collectors who bagged 312,686 mass units.
Each unit’s price peaked at around $742 on April 28, 2022. Today, it has just 7,340 holders.
By mid-July, floor prices sank below $140 and traded sideways with occasional peaks in the years that followed.
Amid the recent market uptick, Merge NFTs have seen floor prices increase to around $193.
Digital Collectibles
What you may have noticed is that all of the top-selling NFTs have something in common — they were all sold between 2021 and 2022.
Hype around NFTs plummeted alongside the brutal crypto crash of 2022, which also brought down the value of these digital collectibles.
NFTs were treated with cynicism as they lacked utility, and to many, were just expensive JPEG images.
Collections such as CryptoPunks have tallied over $92 million in sales volumes over the past 30 days, with CryptoPunks regularly selling for hundreds of thousands.
There are also the likes of Axie Infinity, which pioneered the use of NFTs within Web3 gaming.
Over the years, these novel and innovative applications have seen NFTs transformed into high-utility assets, depending on the platform.
And now, with some believing that NFT collections like CryptoPunks could outperform tokens such as Ethereum this cycle, there’s a strong chance that NFTs are “so back”.
Eddie is a gaming and crypto writer at CCN. Covering the often weird and wonderful world of Web3 with an adoring, but skeptical eye.
Prior to CCN, Eddie has spent the past seven years working his way through the crypto, finance, and technology industry. He began with PR and journalism with Bitcoin PR Buzz and BitcoinNews.com, eventually working his way to become a copywriter with a dozen firms, including the likes of Polkadot before returning to journalism in 2023.
Having studied Radio production and journalism at University in the UK, Eddie spent a few years making podcasts and presenting on a local London radio station as he built up his writing chops.
A lifelong skateboarder, Eddie can often be found at the skatepark or touring the streets looking for something new to try. That, or kicking back playing JRPGs on his original PSP.
