The Most Expensive NFTs Ever Sold: Top 10 Record Prices

NFT sale rankings need a clear definition of “sold.” This list uses widely reported historical sale prices for individual NFT artworks and collectibles, along with one important exception: Pak’s The Merge, whose total proceeds came from units sold to many buyers. Its $91.8 million headline total is higher than any single-buyer NFT purchase, but it is not the price one collector paid for one token.

Prices below are the amounts reported at the time of each transaction, generally converted from cryptocurrency into US dollars using the exchange rate then. They are not inflation-adjusted, and they do not show what a token would sell for now. Auction totals may include buyer’s fees, while a blockchain transaction can show the crypto amount without spelling out every cost.

The NFT market has also seen wash trading, self-dealing and transactions that are not credible arm’s-length sales. A famous example is a reported CryptoPunk trade at an implausibly high price that involved related parties; it is excluded here. Where a sale’s nature or comparability needs context, the entry explains it rather than treating every headline number as equivalent.

These are the ten headline prices covered below. The order compares reported US-dollar values at the time of sale; it does not rank the NFTs by present-day market value, cultural influence or ease of resale.

Rank	NFT	Reported sale price	Sale period
1	The Merge	$91.8 million	December 2021
2	Everydays: The First 5000 Days	$69.3 million	March 2021
3	Clock	$52.7 million	February 2022
4	Human One	$28.9 million	November 2021
5	CryptoPunk #5822	$23.7 million	February 2022
6	CryptoPunk #7523	$11.75 million	June 2021
7	CryptoPunk #4156	$10.26 million	December 2021
8	CryptoPunk #3100	$7.58 million	March 2021
9	CryptoPunk #7804	$7.57 million	March 2021
10	Crossroads	$6.6 million	February 2021

Reported prices can differ slightly between accounts because of exchange-rate timing, auction-fee treatment and rounding. For that reason, the figures are best read as approximate historical values, not exact, directly comparable cash prices.

Pak’s The Merge tops the list at about $91.8 million in reported sales in December 2021. Rather than selling one artwork to one collector, the project sold units—called “mass”—to many buyers through an online sale. Nearly 29,000 collectors participated, making the total proceeds an unusual kind of record.

That structure matters when comparing The Merge with a single-token auction. A buyer who acquired one unit did not purchase the entire artwork for $91.8 million. The total reflects the combined demand for all units sold, so it should not be described as the most expensive NFT bought by one person.

The sale was a high-profile example of how an NFT project can structure ownership and pricing differently from a conventional artwork auction. It also shows why “most expensive NFT” lists can produce different answers: some count aggregate proceeds, while others only compare a single token changing hands in one transaction. Under the broad total-sales definition used here, The Merge ranks first. For a single-buyer record, Beeple’s Everydays is the clearer comparison.

Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days sold at Christie’s for $69.3 million in March 2021. The work is a digital collage made from 5,000 images that the artist, Mike Winkelmann, created and published as part of a daily practice. The auction brought a major NFT sale into a traditional auction house and attracted attention well beyond crypto collecting.

Unlike The Merge, this was a single artwork sold to one winning bidder. The buyer was later identified as crypto entrepreneur Vignesh Sundaresan, known as MetaKovan. The sale is therefore often cited as the highest-priced NFT purchased by one person at a public auction, even though its converted dollar amount depends on the value of the cryptocurrency used at the time.

The price was shaped by more than the image file alone: the scale of the project, the artist’s established following, the novelty of the auction, and a competitive bidding environment all contributed. That combination does not create a reliable price floor for other digital art. A record-setting auction is a historic transaction, not a standing offer to buy the work again at the same amount.

Clock, a collaboration between artist Pak and Julian Assange, sold for about $52.7 million in February 2022. The work displays a counter tracking the number of days Assange had been detained. Its sale was organised to raise funds for the Wau Holland Foundation, which supports Assange’s legal defence.

The reported total came from a single auction purchase, paid in cryptocurrency. The winning bidder was AssangeDAO, a group formed to support the fundraising effort. That makes the sale different from a conventional private collector buying an artwork for personal ownership: a collective pooled resources, and the proceeds were tied to a specific cause.

Clock illustrates why context belongs alongside an NFT’s price. The subject, the fundraising goal, the buyer group and the moment in the crypto market all influenced demand. Its historical auction total is a useful record, but it does not mean another NFT with a similar format—or even this work itself—could be resold today for the same amount. Sale proceeds and current resale value are separate questions.

Beeple’s Human One sold at Christie’s for about $28.9 million in November 2021. It is a hybrid digital and physical work: a moving image of an astronaut walking through changing environments is displayed on a sculptural screen, while the associated NFT gives its owner a role in the work’s ongoing digital presentation. Beeple has described the artwork as something he can continue to update over time.

The piece was not simply a still image stored on a screen. Its physical display, digital component and continuing relationship with the artist made it a distinctive lot for an auction house. That complexity also means a prospective buyer needs to understand what is included in a sale: the NFT, the physical display, any associated rights and the practical arrangements for exhibiting or maintaining the work.

Human One’s price reflects a high-profile auction at a time of exceptional interest in NFTs, as well as the work’s unusual format and Beeple’s profile. It should not be treated as a benchmark for ordinary NFT art. A buyer evaluating an artwork with both physical and token components should carefully confirm which elements transfer and what rights the NFT actually grants.

CryptoPunk #5822 sold for 8,000 ETH in February 2022, widely reported as approximately $23.7 million. It is one of the rare “Alien” CryptoPunks, a trait that helped make it one of the collection’s most valuable individual tokens. The purchase was publicly associated with technology executive Deepak Thapliyal.

CryptoPunks are a set of 10,000 pixel-art characters created by Larva Labs in 2017. Their historical importance, fixed supply and distinctive traits have made them among the best-known Ethereum NFT collectibles. But rarity within a collection is only one factor in price: a buyer also needs to value the collection’s cultural significance, community and likely future demand.

CryptoPunk prices are paid in cryptocurrency, so the dollar figures attached to sales are snapshots of exchange rates at the time. A large ETH-denominated purchase does not ensure an equivalent dollar return later. Nor does one rare Punk’s sale set a minimum value for the rest of the collection. The token’s on-chain history can help confirm a transfer, but it cannot establish what a future buyer will pay.

CryptoPunk #7523, known as the “Covid Alien,” sold at Sotheby’s for about $11.75 million in June 2021. It combines two traits that made it especially notable to collectors: the rare Alien type and a medical mask. Its sale was part of a major auction focused on NFTs and helped bring CryptoPunks to a wider audience.

CryptoPunk #4156 sold for 2,500 ETH in December 2021, reported at about $10.26 million. It is an Ape Punk, another sought-after type, and its sale took place during the market’s peak period of intense attention to high-value NFT collectibles. The dollar value is a conversion of the cryptocurrency paid at the time, not a fixed price attached to the token.

These sales demonstrate how a collection’s traits can affect an individual NFT’s historic price. They do not mean every Alien or Ape Punk will command a comparable amount. In any collection, a buyer should compare actual completed sales, check the token’s authenticity and consider whether the market is liquid enough to support a later resale. A rare trait is a feature, not a promise of profit.

CryptoPunk #3100 and CryptoPunk #7804 each sold for around 4,200 ETH in March 2021. Their reported dollar values were approximately $7.58 million and $7.57 million, respectively. Both are Alien Punks, a very scarce type in the collection. Their near-identical headline prices show how closely timed sales can land at similar dollar values even when the underlying ETH amounts and conversion moments need not be identical.

Beeple’s Crossroads completes this top ten, with a reported sale price of about $6.6 million in February 2021. It is a digital artwork whose imagery changes depending on the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election. The NFT first attracted attention through a sale before the election and later changed hands for the higher figure after the work’s final form was established.

These entries round out a list dominated by a few categories: high-profile digital art, historic Ethereum collectibles and one multi-buyer project. The ranking is not a complete catalogue of every expensive NFT transaction, and figures can be reported differently across records. It is a practical snapshot of notable, widely reported prices—not a promise that these are the only works that could qualify under every definition.

A record sale is not the same thing as a current appraisal. NFT prices depend on the number of interested buyers, the condition of the market, the way a sale is organised, and whether the reported buyer and seller are independent. A high auction result can attract attention without creating repeat demand. Some tokens may have no recent comparable sales at all, which makes a present-day valuation especially uncertain.

Before considering a purchase, verify the collection and token contract rather than relying on an image, a social post or a marketplace name. Review the transaction history on the relevant blockchain and check that the displayed sale was a genuine transfer between separate parties. For art, look for clear information about the creator, provenance, rights and any physical components. Marketplaces such as OpenSea and SuperRare can help people browse NFTs, but a listing price is not proof that a buyer will pay that amount.

Keep the basics in mind: use a wallet you control, confirm the network and transaction details before signing, and never share a recovery phrase. Treat historic prices as context, not an investment forecast. If you cannot verify a token’s authenticity or understand what rights it conveys, do not assume that a famous name or a rare trait makes it safe to buy.