A look at the most expensive NFTs ever sold

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NFTs are unique, non-interchangeable tokens stored on a blockchain. These data units are used to represent real-world objects or assets, usually music, images, videos etc. They can be bought, sold and traded online. And every time these assets change hands, the tokens stored on the blockchain are updated with the new owner's information. While NFTs have been around since 2014, they only rose to fame in 2021. Since then, their collective value has increased to over $40 billion – a number that's almost at par with the value of the global fine art market. (Image: Shutterstock)

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No rule books define how to assess the value of NFTs. Their value usually stems from the highest offer made by a bidder and is largely driven by perception. You assume the NFT is rare, and the price would go up. But just as simply, if it is perceived to be common or ordinary, buyers will run away. Regardless, people all over the world have spent and continue to spend tens of millions of dollars on these digital assets. Read on to find out the top five most expensive NFTs ever sold. (Image: Shutterstock)

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The Merge | $91.8 million | Nearly 30,000 collectors pitched in to purchase this NFT which is the work of famed digital artist, Pak. Eventually, The Merge sold for over USD 90 million, making Pak the most expensive living artist on the planet, according to NFT Gateway. The Merge is a collection of 312,686 NFTs. Each NFT is a white sphere known as a mass. Buyers could buy multiple such NFTs that would then merge to form one large white sphere. The size of the sphere would increase every time a buyer purchased another mass. The Merge auction lasted for two days, and eventually, all 312,686 NFTs were sold for a total of USD 91.8 million. However, until this day, it is not certain whether the Merge is one single piece or a series of artworks. (Image: Shutterstock)

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Everydays: The First 5000 Days | $69.3 million | Everydays was created by Mike Winkelmann, an American graphic designer better known as Beeple. The artwork is a collage of Beeple’s previous 5,000 works, hence the name. Everydays was sold at an auction sale at Christie’s for USD 69 million in February 2021 to Metakovan, an Indian metaverse king. It was a purchase that shook both the crypto and the art world—setting in motion a rush that is yet to subside. (Image: Shutterstock)

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Clock | $52.7 million | Digital artist Pak curated Clock, a dynamic timer. It counts the number of days Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has been in prison. Assange has been extradited from the UK to the US and will spend 175 years behind bars for various espionage charges. Pak created the NFT to pay Assange’s legal bills. The NFT was purchased by AssangeDAO, a decentralized organization created with the mission to fight for Assange’s freedom. It was bought for nearly 17,000 ETH, worth around $52 million at the time. (Image: Shutterstock)

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HUMAN ONE | $28.9 million | Beeple made history by selling another one of his NFTs for over $29 million. HUMAN ONE is a seven-foot-tall box-like moving sculpture with four LED screens. It features an endless video of a helmeted astronaut who seems to be journeying through different dystopian environments at different times of the day. The clips are chosen randomly from 24 hours’ worth of one-minute video clips. As per various media reports, the NFT reflects Winkelmann’s ambition of going beyond the physical realm. A Swiss entrepreneur, Ryan Zurrer, purchased the ambitious NFT on 9 November 2021. (Image: Shutterstock)

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CryptoPunk #5822 | $23.7 million | Deepak Thapliyal—CEO of Chain, a cryptographic ledger system that powers financial products and services—bought CryptoPunk #5822 on 12 February 2022 for over USD 23 million. CryptoPunk #5822 is an alien avatar, the rarest of all CryptoPunks (only nine such exist), making it one of the most expensive artworks from the collection. CryptoPunk is an OG NFT collection and one of the most famous crypto projects. It consist of over 10,000 pixelated art images portraying boys, girls, zombies, apes, aliens, etc. dressed in various attires. These images are generated algorithmically with unique, funky-looking accessories such as smoking pipes, eye-patches, weird hairdos, etc. (Image: Shutterstock)