You should dive into the NFTs if you want to confront the ‘strange’ in modern-day technologies. Essentially a digital copy of art pieces, sometimes, they command attention-grabbing price points. For those who don’t know, NFTs indicate a symbolic possession of anything physical or digital in the form of images, audio, videos, etc. Anybody can have it by downloading it from the internet and share with others. Some compare this act of right-click-and-save to theft, but there aren’t clear guidelines, and there isn’t any easy way of stopping this either. So how does anything holds value if it can be downloaded and shared easily? Originality! Like there may be countless copies of the famous artwork Monalisa, but it’s the first one that is invaluable. Besides, each NFT holds a record of the original owner (and subsequent transactions), preserving the value. Still, there isn’t a real-life use case for most NFTs, making them suitable just for flaunting among social media peers. In such situations, it becomes even more astonishing that some people have broken their banks for random GIFs, JPEGs, MP3s, etc. However, we’re not here to question their shopping intelligence, but instead, see the most expensive NFTs of all time. Stay Tuned.
BEEPLE
Mike Winkelmann (aka Beeple) is an American digital art maestro behind the top-selling NFT of all time. He ventures into short films, VJ loops, AR/VR artwork, etc. But his creation that helped him grab the most headlines is EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS. Everydays is a collage of the first 5000 of the daily publications he continued for over a decade, starting from 1st May 2007 to 7th January 2021. Mike slowly dwelled into 3D, beginning with generic paintings and making commentary on real-life political events. The auction, which opened at $100, was completed at slightly over $69 million, carving Beeple’s name in gold among the elite NFT artists.
Clock
Straightaway, Clock depicts the days the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, is imprisoned. As of this writing, the current count is: There is a long and controversial history behind Julian’s capture that you shouldn’t miss on his Wikipedia bio. The NFT was created by an unknown digital artist, Pak, with the collaboration of Julian Assange himself. This art piece was purchased by AssangeDAO (for over $50 million) to fund Julian’s legal fight. As of today, Assange is held captive in a category A prison in London, waiting to be extradited to the USA, and the Clock’s ticking.
Human-One
Doing away with traditional NFTs, Human-One is a physical sculpture that comes in an aluminum casing, four 16k resolution screens, mahogany wood frame, etc. This is also a brainchild of the Beeple. Human-One tells the story of the first human born in the Metaverse. The digital scenery changes based on the time of the day and is expected to update during the artist’s life. The associated NFT was sold for $29.9 million at Christie’s.
CryptoPunks
CryptoPunks are the collection of 10k weird-looking, pixelated guys and girls once available for free till they were all claimed quickly. Now you need an Ethereum wallet to bid for acquiring any of these unique algorithmically-generated characters. However, not all are available for sale. The ones with red backgrounds can be purchased, while the purple background ones have active bidding. And the remaining aren’t up for grabs. Punk#5822 sold for $23.7 million, the most pricey punk to date.
Ringers
Ringers is a generative artwork consisting of 1000 pieces developed by Dmitri Cherniak. The most expensive NFT is Ringer #109, which sold for $7.1 million. Simply put, Dmitri worked on an algorithm to put straps across the pegs depending on factors such as peg count, sizing, layout, etc. Each Ringer is associated with a unique transaction hash and has been generated in browser Javascript. You can check the complete project at ArtBlocks.
Right-click and…
Right-click and Save As guy is another XCOPY creation making it to the list of most expensive NFTs. It shows a guy who seems to be talking on the phone. The description of this NFT says: Why would I buy it when I can right-click and save as? This directly aims at all people who don’t realize the worth of digital art and argue in favor of downloading them as simple as a right-click. However, there seem to be serious takers, too, as this artwork got sold for over $7 million.
CROSSROAD
CROSSROAD is another one by Beeple portraying the result of the 2020 US presidential election. The original work has two videos catering to the other possible outcome. And depending on the election result, the associated video would play. Consequently, the NFT video shows a blond man (possibly Trump) lying hopelessly, indicating his devastating personal and political loss. This was last sold at Nifty Gateway, a popular NFT marketplace, for a staggering $6.6 million.
Perspective
Perspective is from Ross Ulbricht, the controversial creator of the online anonymous black market, Silk Road. This consists of ten artworks by Ross from his early childhood to the present imprisonment. The NFT also includes a 2m40s animation. The completion collection was auctioned off for $6.2 million to help fund Ross’s legal defense and other related causes.
All Time High in the City
All Time High in the City is from an anonymous crypto artist-XCOPY. The original GIF paints a ferryman taking a suited gentleman to the gates of hell. The image is mostly still but with moving black and red shades in the background. This artwork was grabbed for $6.1 million at SuperRare’s digital art collection.
Ocean Front
Adding to the Beeple’s most expensive NFTs, Ocean Front presents the growing threat of climate change to present civilization. This is the day no. 4344 from the 5000 days of Beeple’s Everyday. Ocean Front was last auctioned off at Nifty Gateway for $6 million. This sum will reportedly go to the Open Earth Foundation to continue the fight against climate change.
A Coin For The Ferryman
This is another XCOPY production finding a place among the most expensive NFTs. The original is a GIF frantically changing compositions with no clear message for the general audience. Despite that, A Coin for the Ferryman realized a hefty selling price of $6 million at SuperRare’s.
Mega Mutant Serum
Mega Mutant Serum holds the power to convert your Bored Ape (Yacht Club) into a Mutant Ape (Yacht Club). For some context, Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10k programmatically generated unique apes. Every ape ownership is touted as the club membership with undisclosed future benefits. The serum is divided into three levels M1, M2, and M3 (mega). The first two are supposed to produce a new ape resembling the original form, while the Mega variant gives birth to something entirely new. One such Mega Mutant Serum was sold for a record-breaking $5.9 million.
Source Code for the WWW
Lasting slightly over 30 minutes, this NFT includes a video showing 9555 lines, mainly showing the implementation of HTML, HTTP, and URIs invented by Sir Tim. Besides, the Source Code for the WWW includes the code in SVG (841*1189 mm) format with the author’s signature at the bottom right. Additionally, it has the original archive and a letter written in markdown by Sir Tim talking about the code and its creation. This was auctioned at Sotheby’s for $5.4 million.
Replicator
Created by Michah Dowbak (aka Mad Dog Jones), Replicator is a first-of-a-kind NFT that can give birth to its subsequent digital generations. The idea is to showcase a photocopier in a typical office space and what can happen throughout its lifespan. While this artwork is regenerative, its reproduction ability decreases with each generation, stopping altogether at Generation 7. Besides, like with all such machines, the Replicator can get jammed. In such cases, it won’t birth a replicator NFT but a jam artwork without replicating abilities. This NFT was sold at the Phillips for $4.1 million.
Stay Free
Stay Free is put together by the world-renowned whistleblower Edward Snowden. This NFT features the complete text of the court’s judgment that ruled the NSA’s mass surveillance illegal. It also embeds the whistleblower’s portrait, indicated by blank space in the gigantic document. This iconic NFT was last bagged for $3.5 million at the Foundation NFT marketplace.
Nice to Meet You…
Nice to meet you, I’m Mr. MiSUNDERSTOOD, a life-size sculpture showcasing one of the famous works of Victor FEWOCiOUS. An NFT accompanies this physical piece of art, and the owner also gets befitted from additional NFT drops. What makes this NFT unique is the hand-painted work that represents the childhood struggles of its maker. Sotheby’s auction house helped FEWOCiOUS sell this work at a whopping $2.8 million.
Machine Hallucinations
Machine Hallucinations – Space Metaverse takes the spatial memories of the International Space Station, Hubble, and MRO telescopes to reproduce an immersive virtual reality experience. The package includes a custom PC, a VR headset, installation files backup, etc., helping you enjoy this 15-minute data visualization. This NFT found a buyer for $2.3 million at Sotheby’s.
A Word of Caution
This isn’t another NFT. It’s good advice to remember while you think about shelling your life savings into such creations. The first thing about these auctions is that their buyers are primarily unknown. They hide behind some random blockchain addresses. Besides, there is no way to ascertain whether the auction is absolute or staged to boost up the value of an asset practically useless in real life. So, do your due diligence before grabbing any of these JPEGs/GIFs/Videos for an amount you don’t want to lose.
Wrapping Up
We hope you enjoyed navigating through this list of some of the strange-looking artworks selling for millions of dollars. If you feel interested, check this out to mint your own NFT to list it for sale.
