Non-fungible tokens have started as a small idea and a few platforms that aimed to bring this use case of blockchain technology to the masses. A year later the hype is real and NFTs have created a craze among collectors, investors and speculators all around the world. In this article we are not only outlying pros and cons of NFTs, but also featuring the most expensive tokens that have been sold so far on the free market.

Art, music and tickets

What makes da Vincis Mona Lisa so special? Simpel, it is a unique painting that is more than 500 years old and while there are many copies there is only one original painting that has distinguishable qualities from all the copies that exist. But what about digital art? How distinguish between two pictures which represent the almost exact same data?

A non-fungible token exists only one time and cannot be counterfeited. Each piece of art gets one token assigned. This way one can tokenize artwork, music, but also VIP concert tickets and many more things that artists have to offer.

Critics argue that such a token is not sufficient to prove exclusive ownership over a digital artwork. One can simply copy and paste a file, but it is not possible to copy and paste the inherent features of the original Mona Lisa, for instance. On the other hand, how to prove ownership over digital goods? NFTs might be the substitute that is needed to enable digital ownership.

Beeple NFTs sets all-time high

A NFT by the famous digital artist Beeple sold for a little bit more than 69 million US-Dollar, which is worth around 57,7 million Euros. The auction was carried out by Christie’s last week and won by Metakovan. It is so far the most expensive NFT of all times and while Beeple is already famous, other artworks are selling for high prices, too.

Beeple’s collage, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, sold at Christie’s. Image: Beeple

Among them the so-called “CryptoPunks”, which is a series of digital art. CryptoPunk #3100 sold for 4.200 Ethereum on March 11th, which was worth approximately 6.345.124,71 Euros at that time. Only a day before CryptoPunk #7840 was sold for the same amount of Ether, but due to the volatility of the price it became the third most expensive in history worth only 6.329.805,08 Euro.

Next in price to the CryptoPunks is the digital collection of Hashmasks and it is believed that the next year will bring new collections with even higher prices.

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