Recently, I’ve been looking over the sales history of NFTs, and honestly, the numbers are mind-blowing. The most expensive NFT in all of history is still The Merge by Pak, sold for 91.8 million dollars back in December 2021. What’s interesting is that it wasn’t a traditional sale: more than 28,000 collectors bought different quantities to form this piece, each unit costing 575 dollars.

Then we have Beeple, who seems to be the other giant in this space. His Everydays: The First 5000 Days went for 69 million at Christie's years ago, but the wild part is that it started with an initial price of just 100 dollars. Bids simply exploded. It’s a collage of 5,000 works he created over 5,000 consecutive days starting in 2007.

Another one that caught my attention is Clock, also by Pak but in collaboration with Julian Assange. This most expensive NFT reached 52.7 million because it literally is a stopwatch that records Assange’s days in custody. It was purchased by AssangeDAO, a community of more than 100 thousand supporters. Each day, it updates automatically.

Also on the list is Human One by Beeple, a 16K kinetic sculpture that moves 24/7 and that Beeple can remotely update. It sold for nearly 29 million at Christie's. It’s basically a living artwork that evolves over time.

But when it comes to collections, CryptoPunks are still brutal. The CryptoPunk #5822 (un Alien Punk de piel azul) se fue por 23 millones. Luego está el #7523, another Alien Punk but with a medical mask, reached 11.75 million at Sotheby’s. And there’s more: the #4156, un simio raro, llegó a 10.26 millones, y el #5577, also a monkey, sold for 7.7 million.

What’s interesting is that these most expensive NFTs aren’t necessarily the ones most people would think of. Axie Infinity and Bored Ape Yacht Club have much higher total sales volumes—(4.27 billion and 3.16 billion respectively)—but individual sales don’t reach these extreme amounts.

There’s also TPunk #3442, which Justin Sun bought for 10.5 million dollars in TRX. It’s known as “The Joker” because it resembles Batman’s villain.

Since then, other expensive works have come out: XCOPY sold his “Right-click and Save As Guy” for 7 million, which is a joke because a lot of people believe NFTs can be downloaded that way. Ringers #109 by Dmitri Cherniak reached 6.93 million. And Beeple’s Crossroad, a 10-second short about the 2020 elections, sold for 6.6 million.

What’s fascinating is that each of these most expensive NFTs has its own story. They’re not just numbers; they represent moments when digital art and cryptocurrencies met at a point where people were willing to pay astronomical amounts for digital assets. Some are unique, others are limited editions, and some like The Merge are literally thousands of combined units.

The NFT market is still volatile and speculative, but what’s clear is that certain artists like Pak and Beeple have managed to create works that transcend the hype and remain as references of value in the space. Even though 95% of NFTs practically have no value, the ones that do can be incredibly valuable.