I'm currently falling down a rabbit hole of the wildest NFT sales and I have to share this with you. It’s absolutely crazy what amounts are being paid for digital artworks.

It all started with Paks The Merge – and this is truly the most expensive NFT that has ever changed hands. $91.8 million in December 2021. The catch: it wasn’t a single buyer, but nearly 29,000 collectors who together purchased 312,686 units. Each unit cost $575, and the more you bought, the larger your share of the whole piece. Pak, this anonymous artist who has been active in the digital art scene for over 20 years, created something completely new. You can argue whether it’s really a single artwork or a collection, but the numbers speak for themselves.

Then comes Beeple with Everydays: The First 5000 Days – $69 million at Christie’s in March 2021. Michael Winkelmann ( is the artist’s real name ), and he created a digital artwork every day for 5,000 days, assembling them into a huge collage. The starting price was only $100, but then it skyrocketed. A programmer named MetaKovan paid with 42,329 ETH. That was an absolute shock to the art world at the time.

The most expensive NFT after Pak isn’t necessarily the most valuable – The Clock by Pak and Julian Assange is a different story. $52.7 million paid by AssangeDAO. The artwork features a timer counting the days of Assange’s detention. It’s not just art; it’s political activism. All proceeds went toward his legal defense. This shows that NFTs are more than just speculative objects.

Beeple also has Human One – a kinetic sculpture sold for $29 million. It’s over two meters tall, has a 16K display, and constantly shows changing dystopian scenes. Beeple can even update it remotely, so it’s a living artwork that evolves over time.

Then we have CryptoPunks. The project by Larva Labs with 10,000 unique avatars from 2017 – practically the birth of NFTs as an art form. CryptoPunk #5822 ( a blue alien ) sold for $23 million. There are only nine alien Punks in the entire series, making them extremely rare. Deepak.eth from the blockchain company Chain snapped this one up.

What fascinates me: CryptoPunk #7523 mit medizinischer Maske, Strickmütze und Ohrring – 11,75 Millionen Dollar. CryptoPunk #4156, a monkey with a bandana – $10.26 million. These Punks are like digital trading cards but have gained real cultural significance.

TPunk #3442 is interesting – Justin Sun, the Tron CEO, bought it for 120 million TRX ( then worth $10.5 million). The NFT is known as "The Joker" because it resembles the Batman villain. Originally, creating each T-Punk cost only 1,000 TRX, about $123. Then Sun came along, and the price shot up.

XCOPY – this anonymous crypto artist – sold "Right-click and Save As Guy" for $7 million. The name is a joke because many think NFTs can just be downloaded. The original was sold in 2018 for 1 ETH ( then worth $90).

Dmitri Cherniak has also achieved impressive numbers with his Ringer series on Art Blocks. Ringers #109 – $6.93 million. These are generative artworks made of "strings and nails." Even the cheapest Ringers still cost around $88,000.

Beeple’s Crossroad was actually the kickoff for everything – February 2021, $6.6 million on Nifty Gateway. A 10-second film about the 2020 US election with two different endings. Back then, it was unimaginable that someone would pay so much for a digital video. But Beeple had already made a name for himself.

What makes all this interesting: the most expensive NFT isn’t necessarily the most valuable or artistically best. It’s about rarity, community, artist reputation, and often the story behind it. CryptoPunks work because they were one of the first projects. Beeple works because he’s a master of his craft. Pak works because he’s innovative.

The market capitalization of NFTs is currently estimated at around $2.6 billion, but 95 percent of NFTs are practically worthless. There’s a huge gap between the mega-hits and the rest. But top collections like CryptoPunks or Bored Ape Yacht Club maintain their value.

Interestingly, there are many more high-priced NFTs – XCOPY’s "All Time High in the City," Edward Snowden’s "Stay Free," various Bored Apes. The market is constantly evolving, and I’m sure new records will be broken in the coming months.

What’s fascinating about this market is that it shows how digital art has become a real business sector. Artists can now monetize directly, collectors have new investment classes, and blockchain makes ownership rights transparent. Whether NFTs will remain relevant long-term is another question – but the artworks we’re seeing right now will definitely be recorded in history.