In 2022, the most expensive NFT (non-interchangeable tokens) are represented by a variety of works – from living sculptures and digital works of art to virtual real estate in the metaverse. We have collected a rating of tokens that have gone down in history due to multimillion-dollar transactions. Today, anyone can make a non-exchangeable token, even on a free platform. Above all, world-renowned companies and hundreds of thousands of private investors invest in them. NFT’s trading volume grew by 43,000% in 2022, reaching $26 billion in turnover.
Find out what the most expensive NFT was, what it is, how an anonymous artist became richer by $ 91.8 million, and why digitalization is the future in a new crazy world where a gif is more expensive than a Ferrari from the salon.
What is NFT?
NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a special form of cryptocurrency asset based on a blockchain architecture. Moreover, it became a sensation in 2022. Each NFT token is unique in its content, so it cannot be replaced with the same value as other coins. Guarantees the ownership of any meta-object, which can act as an analog of a digital signature.
NFTs are stored in the blockchain — this is, in simple terms, a kind of database, all records of which are publicly available. For instance, there are many of them, and anyone with the appropriate technical skills can create their blockchain.
Thanks to the unique token design and the blockchain itself, NFTs have several attractive features:
- They can relate to a file, for example, an image or a music recording.;
- Anyone can check them.
Please note that the inability to thoroughly understand these qualities from a technical point of view causes confusion in technology. The widespread misunderstanding of the essence of the work of the NFT generates a lot of scammers who use this state of affairs to extort huge amounts of money.
There is a misconception that due to non-convertibility, only one token can be assigned to a given file, so NFT can be used to denote ownership of a particular file. However, the point is different — several NFTs pointing to the same source are acceptable. They may belong to different people.
The fact is that everyone is free to create their blockchain and sell NFT on it, pointing to files that are indicated by tokens in another blockchain.
Considering the above, it is necessary to remember:
- The NFT is not proof of ownership of the file it points to;
- buying an NFT does not mean granting the buyer copyright to the work.
Capabilities of NFT
The capabilities of NFT tokens are useful not only for the exchange of digital art objects but they can also be used for serious business applications.
This topic is very extensive. We will only note that tokens can be indispensable in building a market of digital equivalents of real assets, such as houses, businesses, or even bottles of excellent vintage wine. Almost everything can be tokenized.
There are several key points to know about the technology itself:
- The most expensive NFT images include works of art, but they can also be collectibles, media and audio files, avatars, memes, skins, etc. Everything subject to digitalization can become a non-interchangeable token;
- Even the most expensive NFT paintings do not physically exist – they are stored as datasets that are unique to a particular work.;
- In 2022, the value of all items sold on the NFT market was approximately $41 billion;
- The digital art boom was largely due to the work of “Everyday: The First 5000 Days” by the popular artist Mike Winkelman, who became famous as Beeple. The painting went for a staggering $69 million and was long considered the most expensive NFT, but by the end of 2022, the record was broken. More on this later.
- The first popular example of NFT is CryptoKitties, a collection of artistic images of virtual cats used in a game on Ethereum. Users can buy, collect, breed, and sell them. NFT allows you to establish the “origin” of a digital object, confirming its uniqueness.
Top 15 Most Expensive NFT Tokens Ever Sold
Before determining the most expensive NFT, a minute of educational program on the topic. In digital art, two concepts should be distinguished: a digitized work of basic art and a work created only with the help of digital technologies. The first is similar to the thesis “To digitize means to preserve” and assumes the presence of the original object in a material form. In addition, the second means that we are dealing with an intangible object that exists exclusively virtually.
Now you can show off your erudition in a conversation by telling the interlocutor how the most expensive NFT pictures differ, mentioning the following examples.
15. Jack Dorsey’s First Tweet — $2.9 M
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey traded his “zero” post in the form of an NFT token for $2.9 million. The sale took place through the Valuables trading marketplace, the buyer was named the manager of Bridge Oracle (BRG) — Hakan Estiva.
14. Replicator from Mad Dog Jones — $4.1 M
Canadian Mika Dawback created an “evolutionary” NFT “Replicator”, selling it for $4.1 million. Its peculiarity is that the token is made in the form of a printer located in a night office. This composition includes seven unique generations of works of art. The first one will produce one new image every month for six months. With each subsequent generation, the number of generations decreases. As a result, the buyer will receive up to 220 more NFT, which can be resold.
The most expensive NFTs are not always static images, but something more. For example, as in this case, a project living by itself.
13. Save Thousands of Lives — $4.5 M
This is one of the most expensive NFT images from Noora Health. The company develops programs, equips, and trains caregivers in South Asia.
12. CryptoPunk #5217 — $5.4 M
Who would have thought that the monkeys from the CryptoPunks series are the most expensive among the NFT pictures? The avatar in the red hat became the fourth most expensive of the sensational collection of works by the Larva Labs design studio. Above all, it was bought by an anonymous person for 2250 ETH, which at the current exchange rate at that time amounted to 5.4 million dollars.
11. Stay Free from Edward Snowden — $5.5 M
Former NSA and CIA intelligence agent Edward Snowden released his NFT through the Foundation exchange in April 2022. The work consists of scanned pages of the text of a US court order on the illegality of the methods of work of the National Security Agency. In other words, the portrait of Snowden himself is visible in the lines. The funds received from the token sale went to support the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
10. Ocean Front from Beeple — $6 M
The oppressive dystopian landscape embodying the consequences of harmful climate change was bought by the founder of the Tron blockchain project Justin Sun on the Nifty Gateway platform.
This is not the most expensive NFT Beeple, but the artist has promised that he will direct the money to solve environmental problems.
9. A Coin for the Ferryman from Xcopy — $6.01 M
“Coin for the ferryman” is one of the first works by the now legendary crypto artist from London under the pseudonym XCOPY. Entered the most expensive NFT paintings of last year.
8. Beeple, Crossroad — $6.6 M
Crossroad is an NFT animation created by Mike Winkelmann, who is already familiar to us. The work is timed to the defeat of Donald Trump in the US presidential election (a reclining figure is depicted against the background of indifferent passers-by). In addition, the lot was sold on the digital art cryptocurrency market Nifty Gateway.
7. Art Blocks, Ringers #109 — $6.93 M
Programmatically generated art from the Art Blocks collection. The latter has more than 99,000 non-interchangeable tokens. Moreover, according to the report of the decentralized platform Dappradar, the work was sold for 2100 ETH.
6. Xcopy: Right-Click and Save As Guy — $7.09 M
This is the most expensive Xcopy NFT token so far, for which it earned 1,600 ETH or $7.09 million. Judging by the buyer’s pseudonym “Cozomo de’ Medici”, he became a rapper, producer, and actor Snoop Dogg. Later this information was confirmed.
Top 5 NFT – Larva Labs, CryptoPunk #3100 — $7.58 M
An alien with a rim instead of a headdress became part of the collection of alien punks, entering the top 3 most expensive NFTs in this series.
A curious fact: only 406 out of 10,000-pixel punks have a blindfold. CryptoPunk #3100 was initially put up for $2 million but went under the hammer for $7.58 million. At the moment, it is trading for 35 thousand ETH, which at the current exchange rate is about $ 62 million.
4. Larva Labs, CryptoPunk #7523 — $11.75 M
Another alien CryptoPunk # 7523 was nicknamed “Covid Alien” for the mask on his face. It cost the current owner $11.75 million. Sold by Sotheby’s auction marketplace.
3. Beeple, Human One — $29.98 M
Human One is a futuristic sketch depicting the figure of an astronaut walking endlessly forward against the backdrop of constantly changing scenery. The work is displayed on four screens with a total resolution of 16k, which are included in the kit.
Above all, the token was bought in November 2022 for $ 28.9 million at Christie’s to cryptocurrency billionaire Ryan Zurrer.
2. The First 5000 Days — $69.3 M
“Someday this college will cost $ 1 billion. It may become the most important work of art for the current generation. We are glad that we made history by buying it,” says Tubadour, one of those behind the purchase of NFT every day “The First 5000 Days” for $69 million.
The Singapore Metapurse Foundation turned out to be the buyer of a collage of 5 thousand digital images by Mike Winkelman. Above all, this foundation was founded by a man hiding under the pseudonym Metakan, the co-head is a certain Twobadour.
1. The Merge — $91.8 M
NFT The Merge is a digital project created by an anonymous person with the nickname Pak. In December 2022, this work was successfully sold through the NFT Nifty Gateway service. It is important to note that the token is divided into 313,685 separate elements, which 28,983 investors got. Users bought individual “masses”, collectively forming The Merge.
Today it is the most expensive NFT in the world, the cost of which has become an absolute record.
Why are NFTs gaining popularity?
Many novice investors regret that they did not buy bitcoin many years ago when it was a hundred times cheaper. Looking at the sharp rise in the exchange rate, some people feel like the get-rich-quick scheme is going right out from under their noses. In addition, corporations for many years have successfully adjusted consumers to the fact that in the digital world the meaning of “having something” is distorted. People are already used to paying for things that don’t belong to them after purchase (for example, iTunes, where purchased movies disappear when Apple loses licenses, or loot boxes in video games, where you buy a chance to get in-game items). This has made consumers very vulnerable to further distortion of the meaning of the word “property”.
Today, the most expensive NFT is not hype or a soap bubble. Non-interchangeable tokens create the basis for securing the ownership rights of valuable items, which strengthens the position of property protection. For instance, in business processes, NFT tokens can be an extremely powerful tool, as they can represent any asset — digital or real.
Interesting facts about NFT
Among the most promising areas of application of NFT tokens should be noted:
- The sphere of collecting. The technology can be used to create a new kind of digital collectibles. In turn, traditional collectibles, such as baseball cards and stamps, also undergo NFT tokenization.;
- Sphere of gaming business and entertainment. Trading game items are one of the possible uses of NFT tokens. Most implementations revolve around turn-based strategies or collectible card games such as Axie Infinity or Gods Unchained;
- The sphere of business development in art, in creative industries. With the boom of the crypto market of art objects, trading them is more relevant than ever. You have seen this for yourself by studying the most expensive NFT pictures. Blockchain allows artists to monetize their works and protect copyrights;
- Virtual assets. The Ethereum name service and Unstoppable Domains have turned the .eth and .crypto domains into NFTs that can be traded. Real estate in the virtual worlds of Decentraland and Cryptovoxels is also symbolized in NFT, and the metaverse industry itself is only gaining momentum;
- Real assets. One of the primary goals of NFT is the process of tokenizing material items, and trading them in virtual space. OpenLaw has created a real estate trading system based on the ERC-721 token standard, and last year Nike also patented a shoe tokenization system;
- The identity of the information, and protection of information databases of extensive data. With the help of NFT, Internet users can better protect and control personal data, such as a person’s medical history, DNA data, birth certificates, work experience, etc.
In 2022, the most expensive NFTs are just the tip of the iceberg, because they are the future of digitalization.
What influences the price of NFT?
As a rule, the most expensive NFTs are the work of famous artists and other well—known market figures, but the price is also affected:
- Idea;
- Rarity;
- Utility;
- Materiality.
If we are talking only about digital content, whose value is not tied to the base object in the real world, the NFT price is influenced by demand and market sentiment. This means that the author of the token can set any price tag. However, whether there will be those willing to conclude a deal on the terms put forward is another question. When the factors of the seller’s request and the buyer’s intentional costs coincide, the speculative value of the asset will be determined. This is an approximate mechanism of how the most expensive NFT assets appear.
Where can I buy NFT tokens?
You must have the right tools to sell or buy NFT. Traders, investors, and digital artists use cryptocurrency exchanges, as well as special platforms (marketplaces) for this purpose.
To get an NFT, you must have an appropriate digital wallet in which you can store them. NFT is purchased for cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies. Currently, Ethereum is considered the most popular means of payment for this purpose. The process of buying NFT itself can vary significantly depending on which exchange you choose. Interestingly, the cost of NFT tokens can vary greatly, as it is largely based on speculation. The most expensive works of art made with this technology cost tens of millions of dollars, as you could personally see above. However, if you want to purchase such a token, you do not need to spend a fortune. Above all, less popular NFTs can be bought for just a few dollars.
Recognized services where you can buy the most expensive NFT tokens and not only are considered:
- Binance NFT Marketplace is a platform supporting all forms of digital art and collectibles. At the heart of the Binance infrastructure and community, which guarantees the highest liquidity for creating and trading NFT;
- Alibaba NFT — Chinese giant Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) has relatively recently launched a new market for non-convertible tokens (NFT), where owners can sell tokenized licenses for their intellectual property;
- OpenSea is one of the most recognizable NFT exchanges. The site not only acts as a trading and auction platform but also offers an intuitive tool for creating your own NFT or even their collections.
- NFT, or non-exchangeable tokens, are rapidly gaining popularity in the cryptocurrency market. Don’t miss the opportunity to take your place in a growing market. Who knows, maybe the next most expensive NFT will belong to you.