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Among the Most Expensive NFT Sales Ever: Major Records Through 2026

The biggest NFT sale headlines mix pooled edition proceeds, auction lots and individual token trades. Here are major historical records and what their prices mean.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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The highest widely reported NFT sale is Pak’s The Merge, at about $91.8 million in 2021—but that figure was pooled across 28,983 buyers, not paid by one collector for one token. The next best-documented record is Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days, which sold as a single auction lot for $69,346,250. Because published rankings mix pooled editions, auction lots and individual token trades, the examples below are best read as major historical records, not a definitive, consistently measured top ten or a ranking of what NFTs are worth today.

How to read NFT sale records

This roundup includes the reported proceeds of The Merge’s multi-buyer edition alongside single-lot auctions and individual NFT trades. That makes the figures useful for understanding headline historical sales, but not directly comparable as if each were one buyer purchasing one token. Dollar amounts for transactions settled in cryptocurrency are historical conversions; sources can differ in the exchange rate or method they use.

Values below refer to reported sale proceeds, not current resale estimates. The available reporting supports several leading records and additional notable examples, but not a definitive top ten verified under one consistent method. The order after the best-documented high-value results should not be treated as a precise ranking.

Major high-value NFT sales

Work Reported date and price Creator Sale format and context
The Merge 2021; about $91.8 million, as reported by Datawallet (2026) Pak Open-edition drop reported to involve 28,983 buyers. This is pooled proceeds, not one buyer’s payment for one NFT.
Everydays: The First 5000 Days 11 March 2021; $69,346,250 Beeple Single-lot online auction at Christie’s. The collage brings together 5,000 daily images. Christie’s reported the result, which Guinness also lists.
Clock February 2022; about $52.7 million, based on a reported bid of 16,593 ETH Pak and Julian Assange AssangeDAO won the work. Datawallet reports the proceeds were directed to the Wau Holland Foundation for Assange’s legal defence. The dollar figure is a historical conversion.
HUMAN ONE November 2021; $28.9 million, as reported by Datawallet Beeple Christie’s sale of a kinetic physical sculpture paired with an NFT.
CryptoPunk #5822 February 2022; $23.9 million on Christie’s page; about $23.7 million in Datawallet’s comparison Larva Labs Reported as an 8,000 ETH sale. The difference in dollar figures reflects source-specific historical conversion reporting. Christie’s describes CryptoPunks as 10,000 pixelated portraits created in 2017.
CryptoPunk #7523 June 2021; $11.754 million, as reported by Datawallet Larva Labs Sotheby’s sale; the Punk is often called the “Covid Alien.”
CryptoPunk #4156 December 2021; about $10.26 million, as reported by Datawallet Larva Labs Reported 2,500 ETH transaction on the Larva Labs marketplace.

Sources: Datawallet’s 2026 comparison; Christie’s Everydays lot page; Guinness World Records; Christie’s CryptoPunks collection page.

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#1 Best Overall

Other frequently cited record-sale examples

CryptoPunk #7804, CryptoPunk #3100 and XCOPY’s Right-click and Save As Guy also appear in historical high-sale roundups. OpenSea’s retrospective places #3100 at about $7.58 million; NFT.com reports roughly $7.56 million for #3100 and includes #7804 and XCOPY’s work among major sales. These retrospective lists do not establish where the examples rank against every NFT sale through 2026, so they belong among notable records rather than in a claimed strict top ten.

Christie’s reported that its first NFT auction in Asia totaled HK$122 million (US$15.6 million) when it closed in Hong Kong on 28 September 2021. That is the total for the auction, not the price of a single NFT.

Why a famous transaction may not count as a sale record

CryptoPunk #9998 was associated with a widely publicized transfer valued at roughly $532 million, but Datawallet describes it as self-financed or circular rather than an arm’s-length purchase. A headline transfer value is not necessarily evidence that a buyer paid that amount in a genuine sale. Rankings that exclude wash trading and seek settlement verification are more meaningful, though their inclusion rules still need to be clear.

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What the sale price does—and does not—tell you

A historical record is not a current valuation

A record documents a particular transaction at a particular time. It does not establish what the owner could receive in a later sale, or predict future demand. NFTs can lose value, and a past high price is not an investment case.

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Token ownership is not automatically copyright ownership

An NFT represents a token associated with an asset; buying the token does not automatically transfer copyright to the artwork. The image or other linked media may also depend on storage or services that can change or become unavailable. Before buying, check the token contract and the terms that specify what rights, if any, are transferred.

Check the market and transaction details

Auction-house results, marketplace transfers and pooled edition proceeds describe different types of transactions. For a crypto-denominated sale, retain the reported ETH amount and sale date alongside any dollar conversion, and check whether the cited marketplace is still operating before connecting a wallet.

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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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