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Soon after Bitcoin, it became clear that blockchain technology can be used for many purposes other than money transfer. If you can prove ownership of your coins in a public immutable database, why not prove your ownership of something else? This is how NFTs emerged — a kind of cryptocurrency that shows cryptographically verified evidence for you owning a piece of art, a Tweet, or a video. The NFT boom was at its high in March 2021 — so now, it’s a good time to sum it up and see what were the most hyped and expensive sales.
But first, let’s remember what NFTs are.
What is an NFT?
The key concept for NFTs (non-fungible tokens) is fungibility — it’s when two items of one kind have the same value. For example, 1 US Dollar equals any other US Dollar, and they are fungible. The same is for Bitcoin: if you buy 1 BTC on ChangeNOW, it would be of the same value as 1 BTC sent to you by your friend.
NFTs are still cryptocurrencies, but they are non-fungible: every NFT is different from one another, and they can’t be equally exchanged. A picture, a text, a video, or a ticket — they are all unique, and you can barely find two similar items among NFTs.
Non-fungible tokens are stored on blockchains such as Ethereum, BINANCE Smart Chain, EOS, and TRON, and traded on NFT marketplaces like OPENSEA or Rarible. Ethereum-based ERC-721 and ERC-1155 are the two most popular formats of NFTs. Since blockchain is transparent and public, you can see all NFTs out there and even download their digital copy, but only one digital address is the owner. It’s like the Mona Lisa: its original is owned and displayed by Louvre, but you can find its photo on the internet and print it. Pieces of art, texts, videos, game characters, Tweets, and collectibles of all kinds are present among NFTs.
Characteristics of NFTs
NFTs can be unique (like “Everydays” by Beeple), or there can be a whole collection of them (like 10,000 CryptoPunks). Like any other token, you can send an NFT to any address of the same blockchain, which will be reflected in the public database. You can’t send a part of it, though: unlike regular tokens, NFTs are indivisible.
One of the earliest examples of NFTs are CryptoKitties. Launched in 2017, they made quite a rush: thousands of users were buying, taking care of, and breeding unique virtual kittens, which led to critical congestion of the Ethereum blockchain.
A lot of progress has been made since. An ERC-1155 format emerged: it allows you to combine fungible and non-fungible assets on one smart contract. It works well in many games: the format allows for owning unique objects such as characters, weapons, or land parcels, and fungible items like money or gold.
Since 2017, many blockchain- and NFT-driven games have emerged: Decentraland, Gods Unchained, Sorare, F1 Delta Time.
What are the perks of NFTs?
NFT opened a number of opportunities that digital ownership brings:
- Artists can create digital masterpieces and reach a broader audience of those who monitor NFT marketplaces. By selling their work in a peer-to-peer manner, they return that part of value previously withheld by the centralized platforms.
- Buyers get publicly provable ownership of masterpieces, which gives them a unique feeling of involvement.
- For investors, NFTs are another attractive tool for multiplying their capital.
Top-10 world’s most expensive NFTs
#10. CryptoPunk 6487
Sold February 22 2021, $1.05M
CryptoPunks is an outstanding collection of 10,000 NFTs, of which 5 are among the Top-10 most expensive NFT sales and are present on our list. CryptoPunks were launched even earlier than CryptoKitties — it was June 2017 when Matt Hall and John Watkinson founded Larva Labs and introduced this collection of pixel characters. They don’t really all look like punks, but all are freaky enough. Back then, they were given away for free. Soon, the trade started, and first buyers paid their cents and bucks to get a CryptoPunk. Today, this is a million-dollar industry.
CryptoPunk #6487 is number 10 on our list sold for a little more than $1 million. It’s one of 3840 female punks that doesn’t have many special distinctions, except for being totally bald and wearing red lipstick.
#9. CryptoPunk 4156
Sold February 18 2021, $1.25M
CryptoPunk #4156 belongs to the category of Ape CryptoPunks, which there are 24 in total. 4 CryptoApes are available for sale now, and the most expensive one goes at $22.92M — could be much more expensive than #4156! One more Ape from the collection is on our list — #6965 went at a ‘slightly’ higher price of $1.54M.
#8. A song from 3LAU DJ — and the right to name it
Sold March 2021, $1.33M
This one is quite a multifaceted NFT. First, this is a sound art piece created by DJ Justin Blau, known as 3LAU. Secondly, there’s an animation designed by a digital artist called Slimesunday. Together, they organized an auction where the highest bidder could name the piece. Gunky’s Uprising is what the piece was called.
#7. The “Genesis” estate of blockchain game Axie Infinity
Sold February 9 2021, $1.5M
In 2020, land sales in virtual worlds accounted for 40% of all NFT sales. This bid was the biggest — the Genesis estate as the ‘Epic 9 plot Genesis estate’ in the Axie Infinity game was sold for $1.5M. This Ethereum-based virtual fantasy game allows users to raise and battle with Axies characters who own land. This #7 bid is a piece of land with a strategically important position and a good view.
#6. CryptoPunk 6965
Sold February 19 2021, $1.54M
This CryptoPunk 6965 with an old-fashioned brown fedora hat is from this Apes category which you are already familiar with. His kind of tired look hints that he’s not impressed with the insane NFT craze going on, but didn’t stop him from being sold for $1.54M. Moreover, this has been his 4th sale since 2017. In May, he was offered again, this time for striking $7.22M.
#5. The first tweet ever
Sold March 22 2021, $2.91M
In 2006, the early digital startup era, Twitter CEO and founder Jack Dorsey (who also became a Bitcoin evangelist later) wrote his first tweet. After being sold at Valuables NFT marketplace, this tweet hasn’t become a cryptocurrency, nor its buyer got the author’s rights for it. Buying the first-ever tweet gives a unique feeling of involvement and helps raise money for charity — the $2.91M paid by Sina Estav, the CEO of a Tron-based Oracle System, were later donated to programs in Africa. Interestingly, a smaller bid of $2M was previously offered by the TRON founder Justin Sun.
#4. Crossroad
Sold February 25 2021, $6.66M
This 10-second video was issued by Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, soon after it became clear that Donald Trump ultimately lost the Presidential election in the USA. It depicts the defeated ex-president’s naked body lying on the ground with curse words written all over. The Twitter bird is sitting on top and delivers a clear message. The passers-by don’t care.
Interestingly, there was another version of this artwork prepared for the case if Trump won the election. If that happened, the token would change: Trump would be shown in a crown running through flames. This is now never to happen.
#3. CryptoPunk 7804
Sold March 11 2021, $7.57M
The second most expensive of all ever sold, CryptoPunk 7804 is one of 9 Alien punks with a cap forward, sunglasses, and a pipe. We don’t know since when aliens have this skin color, but that helped him get sold for over $7.5 million. The first time, this item was sold in January 2018 for $15K.
#2. CryptoPunk 3100
Sold March 11 2021, $7.58M
Another alien punk and the most expensive one ever sold, CryptoPunk 3100 wears a headband and looks like he doesn’t know what he’s doing on this list. One month after it had been minted, #3100 was sold for $2,127, with the first bid being just $76. Quite a cool investment, isn’t it?
#1. Everydays: The First 5000 Days
Sold March 11 2021, $69.3M
2021 was marked by the fact that such conservative institutions as auction houses embraced cryptocurrency and NFT. “Everydays” is the most expensive NFT sold by Christie’s house: it’s a compilation of 5000 digital artworks created day by day by Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann since 2007. The image reflects the evolution of Beeple’s art. The buyer, Indian crypto enthusiast Vignesh “Metakovan” Sundaresan, said he would pay even more for this piece: the act of buying it made him part of the historical revolution in how art is perceived.
Final word
NFT is a new word both in the world of art and in the domain of digital ownership. For artists, it’s a great tool to share their artworks with the audience while keeping the total revenue, while for the owners, the NFT crypto token gives them the right to say: “Yes, anyone can see and download this item, and I only enjoy this fact, because the original belongs to me — and you can look it up the blockchain and see.”
Today, NFT marketplaces with collectible visual items are a million-dollar industry. Together with land parcels in digital games, images account for over ? of all NFT sales as of today. However, there are potentially many more applications of the NFT technology, including event tickets, digital copyright, domain names, and more. They are now at their early start, and the years to come will show us whether NFT will unleash its potential or will remain home just for games and digital art.
