Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs Are the Talk of the Town Nowadays. Find Out the Most Expensive Ones Ever Sold.
Aluxers, we gave you a rundown of non-fungible tokens or NFTs in our article 10 Things You Didn’t Know About NFTs and we highly recommend you read that before delving into article.
As we explained, “NFT’s are blockchain tokens that offer a certificate of ownership. They cannot be copied and multiplied. Also, they are non-fungible, which basically means they are one of a kind.”
So, which are the most expensive ever sold? Let’s find out.
Please note – all amounts are rounded off and like the exchange rate has highs and lows, so does the price of Ethereum fluctuate and the value may be different from the time of writing to publishing this article.
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15
NFT Digital House – $500,00 +
Krista Kim, a contemporary artist who has had work displayed globally, sold an NFT-minted digital house for 288 Ether. It works out to around $500,000.
Called Mars House, it’s part of her vision for how we incorporate augmented reality into the world as we know it.
As she puts it, “Just like tattoos. People express themselves with tattoos. It’s an art form. Well, people are also going to express themselves with digital … assets and decorative pieces and collectibles, fashion, accessories.”
If Mars House has intrigued you, check out Is Mars the New America?, to read all about colonization on Mars.
14
CryptoPunk #2681 – $560,000
Our list is busting with CryptoPunks, which are described as a “combination of art, technology, absurdity, and social experimentation that is analogous to radical tokenization methods used by artists like Andy Warhol,” on bravenewcoin.com.
There are only 10,000 CryptoPunks available. That’s it. So, once you’ve got one, it’s yours for life or until you decide to sell it and make a fortune.
Since we have more coming up, we’ll go into more detail as to why these characters are so popular as we go along.
This CryptoPunk #2681 was bought on the 19th of February 2021, and is valued at around $2,000 per ET
13
Nyan Cat – $590,000
You’re probably thinking that you’ve seen this cat a million times, so how is it possible it netted the artist almost 600k? Welcome to the wonderful world of NFTs.
This cat has been flying across the web for 10 years this April, and now artist, Chris Torres, is reaping the benefits. In 2011, Nyan Cat was number 5 on the list of most viewed YouTube videos.
Torres was really surprised at how well the auction of his artwork went online, and within 24-hours bidding went from $1,500 all the way to around $590,000 and as he said, “I’m very surprised with the success, but I think I’m most glad knowing that I’ve basically opened the door to a whole new meme economy in the crypto world.”
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12
Hashmask #6718 – $603,000
Valued at $2,010 per ETH, this piece of digital artwork sold a month ago and is one of 16,384 unique Hashmasks brought to you by Suum Cuique Labs from Zug, Switzerland.
The masks have been created by over 70 artists globally.
The unique selling feature of these masks is that you have no idea which mask you’ll get after bidding. Once your bid is successful, you name the mask anything you want on the Ethereum blockchain. This is done using an NCT or Name Changing Token. As the website explains, “You are not simply buying a piece of rare art. You are part of the art piece.”
11
Genesis – +- $608,000
This collaborative piece was created by Trevor Jones and Jose Delbo. Delbo has created quite a name for himself in the comic world with his work on Wonder Woman, Billy the Kid, the Transformers and the Beatles Yellow Submarine Comic. Jones has been drawing major attention to his work by incorporating technology into his artwork.
10
CryptoPunk #2140 – $804,000
Number 10 our on our list is 1 of 24 Ape punks created by Larva Labs. He has small shades, a knitted cap and is owned by address grunar.eth who now owns 3 punks in total.
Matt Hall and John Watkinson are the guys behind CryptoPunk. They also have Autoglyphs, the first “on-chain” generative art on the Ethereum blockchain.
Hard to believe that when CryptoPunk first came out in 2017, they were being given away for free to anyone with an Ethereum Wallet.
The rarer types include the Apes, as we said there are only 24 of them, Zombies of which there are 88 and Aliens, of which there are only 9!
9
Hashmask #9939 – $844,000
Aluxers, remember we said that if you own a Hashmask, you can name it anything you want? Well, the owner of Hashmask #9939 named this one “Sex.”
And that’s totally acceptable, because as the hashmask website explains, “It encourages the consumer or rather the collective consumer to project his or her interpretation of value into the artwork.” And by naming it whatever the h*ll you want… our words not theirs, giving it a unique name eradicates “the invisible line separating the creator and the consumer of the artwork.” Their words, not ours.
8
CryptoPunk #6487 – $1.1 Million
In total, 3840 Female punks were created. According to Larvalabs.com, 7,392 Punks have been sold over the past 12 months and if you’re thinking of buying, this is what you need to look out for:
Punks with a blue background have been claimed.
Punks with a red background are available for sale by their owner.
Punks with a purple background have an active bid on them.
If you’re keen to purchase, bear in mind that currently the most affordable pink is $40,500 or 22.3 ETH.
7
CryptoPunk #2890 -$1.2 Million
Aluxers, this is one of the 9 aliens we mentioned earlier.
The drawcard for investors is that their purchases are cryptographically guaranteed scarcity.
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6
CryptoPunk #4156 – $1.3 Million
It’s another Ape on our list, which sold for 650 Eth, or roughly $1.3 million.
Aluxers, it’s amazing to think that although this art is sold as digital pieces, ultimately, that CryptoPunk formed part of an exhibition that took place in Switzerland in 2019.
The exhibition was called “Perfect & Priceless: Value Systems on the Blockchain” and John Watkinson had been invited there by Swiss curator and digital art expert, Georg Bak.
Having never signed a piece of art in his life, or even considered himself as artist, Watkinson was quoted as saying, “I’m nervous about signing these,” when he penned his signature to 12 CryptoPunks.
5
CryptoPunk #6965 – $1.6 Million
We’re aping back-to-back here, with another CryptoPunk Ape at this week’s number 5. Differences are not huge between number 5 and 6, barring headgear and around $300,000!
To give you a little more background to these CryptoPunks, each image is 24-by-24-pixels. The characters are a nod to the early 90s cypherpunks, founded by Timothy C. May and John Gilmore who met monthly at Gilmore’s company Cygnus Solutions. Jude Milhon introduced the term, and it was added into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006.
They created a mailing list and would have technical discussion ranging from mathematics, cryptography, computer science, political and philosophical discussion, personal arguments, and the occasional spam.
4
Jack Dorsey’s First Tweet – Latest Bid $2.5 Million
We all know the name and we all know the Tweet… but did you know that Jack Dorsey is currently selling the NFT to that Tweet and the last bid update put it at $2.5 million!
It’s being sold on Valuables, which is an NFT auction site. Once sold, the proceeds will be converted into BTC and donated to charity.
The lucky owner will receive a “digital certificate of the tweet.”
3
CryptoPunk #7804 – $7.5 Million
Small shades, pipe and cap forward are the specs of this alien CrytoPunk. When this teal-coloured punk sold, it set a record for the highest amount paid for a punk.
CryptoSlam was first purchased in 2018 for 12 Eth, and then went up for sale in February 2021 and sold for 4,200 Eth.
Remember what we said in our video about NFTs, you as the buyer get the “digital rights to resell, distribute or license the digital asset as you please.” Be sure to watch it, and very soon, we’ll highlight the most expensive NFT ever sold!
2
CryptoPunk #3100 -$7.6 Million
It’s our final CryptoPunk, and it’s another teal-coloured alien that sold for 4,200 Eth – or around $7.6 million!
This head-banded version was sold on the 11th of March and when Cryptopunk #3100 was last transacted in July 2017 it went for a paltry 8 Eth, or just over $2,000.
One of the many attractive features of NFTs, is that it gives the power back to the people in deciding what value to give to an NFT. There are no middlemen like galleries and auction houses. And whereas it may never be possible to own something like an original Salvador Dali, you might find yourself being the proud owner of a CryptoPunk or something similar.
It’s opened up a whole new world for artists and buyers.
1
Everydays: The First 5,000 Days – Artwork by Beeple, $69.4 Million
We covered this piece extensively in 10 Things you didn’t know about NFTs, and this digital piece has made headlines globally.
It sold for $69.4 million and even creator Mike Winelmann, AKA, Beeple, couldn’t believe his ears when he heard the sale price. He was pretty shocked when the price went to 27 million, as you can hear him say:
“Jesus Christ, what the f–”
And his reaction at the final price is well, priceless.
In his words, “I think it probably means digital art is here to stay,” and so do we.
Question:
Aluxers, what is your favourite piece on our list today?
