Beeple's First 5000 Days digital artwork was by far the most expensive non-fungible token (NFT) sold in 2021 at the time of publication, with most other projects stemming from gaming and collectibles. Mike Winkelmann's piece was also significantly more expensive than other art pieces, with Hairy's #1/1 being sold for roughly 550 ETH (or 1,000 U.S. dollars) on March 14, 2021. Note the significant price difference between this piece and the collectible CryptoPunk 6487 on February 22: Both sold for around 550 ETH, but their value in USD varied significantly due to both the Ethereum price as the transactions cost for the cryptocurrency - something referred to as the Ethereum gas price. It is this price difference that increasingly led people in 2021 to see NFT, or non-fungible tokens, as a viable tool for investment. Indeed, the NFT market cap grew nearly ten-fold between 2018 and 2020.
Most expensive non-fungible token (NFT) sales worldwide as of March 16, 2021
Characteristic
ETH
USD (in 1,000)
Beeple Everyday: The First 5000 Days (Mar 11, 2021)
38,474.82
69,346.25
CryptoPunk 7804 (Mar 11, 2021)
4,200
7,820.52
CryptoPunk 3100 (Mar 11, 2021)
4,200
7,574.38
Beeple CROSSROADS (Feb 25, 2021)
4,152.86
6,600
CryptoPunk 6965 (Feb 19, 2021)
800
1,545.93
CryptoPunk 4156 (Feb 18, 2021)
650
1,199.41
CryptoPunk 2140 (Mar 02, 2021)
750
1,069.04
CryptoPunk 6487 (Feb 22, 2021)
550
1,052.04
hairy #1/1 (Mar 14, 2021)
543.4
1,035.7
CryptoPunk 3393 (Mar 13, 2021)
500
884.25
CryptoPunk 2140 (Feb 22, 2021)
400
773.55
CryptoPunk 2890 (Jan 23, 2021)
605
747.4
CryptoPunk 3011 (Mar 12, 2021)
400
721.37
CryptoPunk 1839 (Mar 12, 2021)
360
649.23
Hashmask 9939 (Feb 02, 2021)
420
640.15
CryptoPunk 3609 (Mar 05, 2021)
369
584.52
The EverLasting Beautiful by FEWOCiOUS #1/1 (Mar 08, 2021)
336.23
565.54
CryptoPunk 5234 (Mar 04, 2021)
350
554.42
CryptoPunk 2681 (Feb 19, 2021)
277
535.28
Beeple Everydays - Raw #1/100 (Mar 13, 2021)
298.87
526.68
Hashmask 6718 (Feb 04, 2021)
300
497.86
Boardwalk #1/1 (Feb 20, 2021)
237.74
465.67
CryptoPunk 1119 (Feb 26, 2021)
300
447.44
CryptoPunk 6297 (Feb 07, 2021)
215
362
Death of the Old #1/1 (Mar 01, 2021)
237.77
335.9
Aku.001 - The Vault #1/1 (Feb 23, 2021)
186.46
332.29
Beeple Everydays - Raw #19/100 (Feb 25, 2021)
203.78
323.86
The Smintons #1/1 (Jan 21, 2021)
235.6
313.97
INFECTED #67/123 (Feb 26, 2021)
176.06
268.35
Salvavidas #1/1 (Mar 13, 2021)
142.64
251.37
Afraid to Be Myself #5/5 (Feb 26, 2021)
152.83
232.94
Heroines – Weight Of The World (Mar 06, 2021)
148.89
229.82
BULL RUN #145/271 (Mar 11, 2021)
119.82
219.19
INFECTED #40/123 (Mar 11, 2021)
119.21
218.08
THE 5000 DAY SELECTS (Mar 12, 2021)
118.88
216.63
Everything's Fine #6/21 (Mar 10, 2021)
115.54
211.98
THE 5000 DAY SELECTS (Mar 13, 2021)
120
211.47
BULL RUN #238/271 (Mar 11, 2021)
115.47
211.25
BULL RUN #188/271 (Mar 11, 2021)
115.1
210.55
Queeny (Mar 03, 2021)
140
207.75
Real Ghost #1/1 (Mar 04, 2021)
122.27
194.88
BULL RUN #148/271 (Mar 11, 2021)
100.87
184.53
INTO THEER #156/207 (Mar 09, 2021)
100.87
179.8
The Bitcoin Angel #1/1 (Feb 28, 2021)
115.47
172.73
Cubist Satoshi #1/1 (Feb 28, 2021)
115.47
172.73
Beeple Everydays - Raw #76/100 (Mar 15, 2021)
91.7
172.46
The First Ever Edition Of Rick And Morty Cryptoart #1/1 (Jan 20, 2021)
The transaction values were in ETH, and have been been converted to USD by using the average ETH price of that particular day
Supplementary notes
The figures provided have been collected from two sources and were then compared against the average Ethereum price on the day of transaction. The ETH price is found elsewhere on Statista.com, whilst the two sources were as follows:
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Statista. (March 16, 2021). Most expensive non-fungible token (NFT) sales worldwide as of March 16, 2021 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved December 30, 2024, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1222113/top-nft-projects-worldwide/
Statista. "Most expensive non-fungible token (NFT) sales worldwide as of March 16, 2021." Chart. March 16, 2021. Statista. Accessed December 30, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1222113/top-nft-projects-worldwide/
Statista. (2021). Most expensive non-fungible token (NFT) sales worldwide as of March 16, 2021. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: December 30, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1222113/top-nft-projects-worldwide/
Statista. "Most Expensive Non-fungible Token (Nft) Sales Worldwide as of March 16, 2021." Statista, Statista Inc., 16 Mar 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1222113/top-nft-projects-worldwide/
Statista, Most expensive non-fungible token (NFT) sales worldwide as of March 16, 2021 Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1222113/top-nft-projects-worldwide/ (last visited December 30, 2024)
Most expensive non-fungible token (NFT) sales worldwide as of March 16, 2021 [Graph], Statista, March 16, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1222113/top-nft-projects-worldwide/
