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What is the current value of NFTs that were sold for millions?

Those who bought NFTs only a few years ago might be regretting their choice.

Some NFTs sold for millions — What are they worth today?

The concept of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, has evolved. At the height of the NFT hype cycle, it seemed as though digital artwork craze may sweep the globe.

NFT collections that caught the cultural zeitgeist, such CryptoPunks and Bored Apes, gained popularity in 2021 and 2022. A number of celebrities, including Madonna, LeBron James, Tony Hawk, and Justin Bieber, purchased artwork, making news in popular media.

At the MTV Video Music Awards, Snoop Dogg and Eminem gave a performance as the avatars of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Source: CryptoPunk #5822

American socialite Paris Hilton discussed her passion for NFTs on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in January 2022.

A few months later, in May 2022, the market reached its peak, with a $526 billion market capitalization. The market’s current valuation is 97% lower, at about $18 billion. How are the NFT investments doing as of right now?

CryptoPunk #5822

One of the biggest and most well-known NFT series ever offered is CryptoPunks. The 10,000-strong collection of 24×24 pixelated “punk” characters was introduced on the Ethereum blockchain by Larva Labs in 2017, and it played a significant role in starting the crypto art movement.

Christie’s of London sold nine CryptoPunks at auction in 2021 for a total of $16.9 million. Christie’s claims that Blade Runner, the London punk movement, and William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer served as inspiration for the CryptoPunk collection.

 

This is not CryptoPunk #5822, it is only a JPEG. Source: CryptoPunks

CryptoPunk #5822 sold for 8,000 Ether ETH on February 12, 2022.

or $23.7 million. Deepak Thapliyal, the CEO of Chain, a blockchain financial startup, bought it. A mere month afterward, Thapliyal declined an offer of 10,000 ETH for his artwork, which could have yielded a nearly instantaneous $2 million profit. There are only nine extraterrestrial CryptoPunks in the world, including CryptoPunk #5822. Another alien CryptoPunk, #635, sold for $12.4 million in April 2024 when it was listed for 4,000 ETH, and in March 2024, alien CryptoPunk #3100 sold for 4,500 ETH. These transactions suggest that in just two years, Thapliyal’s investment has nearly halved in value. While interest in Ether has not decreased, it may have in CryptoPunks. The value of 8,000 Ethereum in February 2022 was only $23.7 million. 8,000 ETH is currently worth $26.6 million.

EtherRock 93

EtherRock is an assortment of 100 “Pet Rocks” that were created in 2017 using a free ClipArt image. While they differ in color, every rock in the EtherRock line is the same size and form. The rarest EtherRock type is blue, yet the majority of rocks are gray or brown.
EtherRock #93, a common gray rock, sold for 420 ETH on November 2, 2021. Why did the buyer decide to part with the absurdly exorbitant sum of $1.8 million for this simple JPEG? The quantity of Ethereum paid might hold the key to understanding what motivated them.

Comparing prices isn’t too difficult because EtherRocks are nearly the same. Currently, an EtherRock is traded for about 200 ETH, which is about $750,000 to $800,000 less than it was in 2021.

That is a significant amount of money lost. Read: Bitcoin September Update For Scalpers

Ape Boredom #8817

The Bored Ape Yacht Club is arguably the NFT collection that did the most to promote the industry to the general public.

Bored Apes were huge in 2021 for a hot minute. They were just everywhere. Sports personalities, musicians, and business moguls like Mark Cuban of Shark Tank were among the collectors. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who won an Oscar, even owned one. At least twelve were gathered by DJ and music producer Steve Aoki, though he has since reduced his group to just seven.

Sotheby’s revealed on October 26, 2021, that Bored Ape #8817 had sold for an unprecedented $3.4 million. The main selling point was that only 1% of bored apes had gold fur.

Things worsen.

It’s likely that investors who put money into less well-known projects fared much worse. A dappGambl analysis from September 2023 showed that 69,795 of the 73,257 NFT collections it found had a market cap of 0 ETH.

DappGambl came to the conclusion that 95% of NFT collectors have zero-valued investments.

On the other hand, “rekt” collectors can counter that it is simplistic to just consider the NFTs’ pricing. After all, art is not just for price speculation—it’s for the soul. Beyond aesthetics, the blockchain technology supporting NFTs has also shown to be reliable from a technical standpoint.

Millions of NFT collectors may be taken away from them, but their digital certificate of ownership, which is irreversibly recorded on the blockchain and shows that the JPG you right-clicked and saved to your hard drive isn’t truly yours, cannot be taken away.

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