29/12/2023 Bored Apes to CryptoPunks: The top 10 most expensive NFT sales of 2023

Quick Take

  • Yuga Labs’ NFT projects CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club dominated the most expensive NFT sales of 2023.
  • In fact, four of the sales were a CryptoPunk, four were a Bored Ape and one was a Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT.
  • The only non-Yuga Labs asset making the list was one Fidenza NFT, a generative art collection from Tyler Hobbs.

This year wasn't the best for NFT sales, or for the floor prices of the most popular collections.

Yuga Labs's NFT collections Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, which was originally created by Larva Labs, saw their floor prices fall 57.6% and 13.8% respectively from Jan. 1, 2023 to Nov. 28, according to The Block's Data Dashboard.

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However, Bored Apes and CryptoPunks made up the majority of the most expensive NFT sales of 2023. In fact, four were from the Bored Ape collection and another four were from CryptoPunks, with one Art Block Fidenza and a Mutant Ape NFT thrown in as well.

Here's a look at the most expensive NFT sales of 2023.

10)Bored Ape Yacht Club #5116 — 440 ETH

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT #5116. Image: OpenSea

This NFT sold on March 7 on the NFT platform X2Y2 for 440 ETH. The NFT's rarity includes trippy fur, which only 0.77% of the 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs have, as well as Kings Crown, also with 0.77% rarity.

9) CryptoPunk #3307 — 500 ETH

CryptoPunk #3307. Image: CryptoPunks

While other NFTs are prized for their rare attributes, CryptoPunk #3307 is special for its lack of any. It is one of eight CryptoPunks that has zero attributes,accordingto the CryptoPunk website.

The asset sold for nearly $1 million worth of ETH on Aug. 4 on the Larva Labs marketplace.

8) Mutant Ape Yacht Club #30002 — 500 ETH

Mutant Ape Yacht Club #30002. Image: Blur

This Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT marks the only asset from the Mutant Ape Collection, a spin off of Bored Ape Yacht Club, making the top 10 list. It has a 1-of-1 "mega zombie" trait, making it the only NFT of the 20,000 MAYC NFTs with this trait. A user bought this NFT for 500 ETH on the NFT marketplace Blur on Sept. 1.

7) Bored Ape Yacht Club #4980 — 530 ETH

Bored Ape Yacht Club #4980. Image: X2Y2

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT #4980 is one of 46 with solid gold fur and has other rare traits. Of the collection’s 10,000 NFTs, this one has a gray background (11.7% with this trait), smoking jacket (2.2%), angry expression (4.3%), a party hat (1.2%) and is making the phoneme “ooo” (2.5%). It sold for 530 ETH, worth $1.06 million, on May 15.

6) CryptoPunks #8531 — 550 ETH

CryptoPunk #8531. Image: CryptoPunks

One of the 88 existing "ZombiePunks" makes the sixth most expensive NFT sale of 2023. This NFT is one of 463 with stringy hair, one of 295 with a goatee and one of 527 with regular shades.

It sold for 550 ETH, worth $1.06 million, on July 15 on the CryptoPunks marketplace.

5) Bored Ape Yacht Club #1734 — 600 ETH

Bored Ape Yacht Club #1734. Image: X2Y2

Trading hands for $1.2 million worth of ETH on July 13 on X2Y2, this asset is one of the 46 other Bored Ape NFTs with solid gold fur. It also has a faux hawk, which only 1.2% of the collection has, as well as a "bored cigarette," with a rarity of 7.1%.

4) CryptoPunk #7458 — 600 ETH

CryptoPunk #7458. Image: CryptoPunks

Another ZombiePunk here — except this one has a knitted cap (one of 419), a shadow beard (1 of 526) and regular shades (1 of 527). A userboughtthis NFT for 600 ETH, worth $1.14 million, on the CryptoPunks marketplace on Nov. 6.

3) Fidenza #545 — 625 ETH

Fidenza #545. Image: OpenSea

The only NFT collection not from CryptoPunks or Bored Apes IP is from Tyler Hobbs' generative NFT collection Art Blocks. Part of the Fidenza collection, Fidenza #545 sold for 625 ETH, or $1.145 million, on OpxttmenSea. The rarest trait on this NFT is its "small" scale; the floor price of Fidenzas with the small scale trait have a floor price of 600 ETH onOpenSea.

2)Bored Ape Yacht Club #7090 — 800 ETH

Bored Ape Yacht Club #7090. Image: X2Y2

This NFT sold for 800 ETH worth $1.6 million on Feb. 7 on X2Y2. Ithassolid gold fur, with a multicolor grin (1.2%), service uniform (1.4%) and heart-shaped glasses (3.9%).

1) CryptoPunks #5066 — 857 ETH

CryptoPunk #5066. Image: CryptoPunks

The most expensive NFT to sell in 2023 was CryptoPunk #5066. It sold for 857 ETH ($1.4 million) on Feb. 6.It’s not only yet another zombie punk (1 of 88), but it has an earring (1 of 2,459), a knitted cap (1 of 419) and a smile (1 of 238).

Arts

https://www.theblock.co/amp/post/264887/bored-apes-to-cryptopunks-the-top-10-most-expensive-nft-sales-of-2023

Interesting NFTs
Banksta
Pump, dump and bump Banksta to death. Demon or dead normal? Print fiat at will. What more do you want?
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.
#52211
By OthersideDeployer
Pygmalion
"Pygmalion" shows us a beautiful set of sunshine yellow doors leading us out to a stunning seascape under a blue sky. In Patrick Hughes’ art, doors are very useful because the movement caused by the reverspective construction replicates the movement that is intrinsic to doors, which are designed to open and close, to reveal or conceal. These doors show us alternatively the closed doors or the splendid view beyond, depending on our movement and point of view. --- Reserved Artist Proof
The Moth Catcher
In this psychologically bed-headed portrait, a creature sets in a trance; his eyes devolved and vestigal, his third eye open but hardened and in a form resembling a Sharingan. The imagery therefore expresses an awareness existing in corporeal introspection. The creature’s mind sprouts, on the left side, an emerging face, grinning. To the right side of the head, red tentacles and fingers intertwine–a collaboration of invertebrate and vertebrate consciousness cooperatively handling paint brushes of the sort used to build an oil painting. The neck and throat bristle with random thorns, as from a rose or the upper portions of a beak sprouting from its flesh. The neck itself disassociates into layers of membranous material, terminating upon an abstracted base of convoluted forms composing its body. The nose is virtually non existent, more a sinus reiterative of the shape of the third eye. Set against the exposed teeth peering out of thick, meaty cheeks, a skeleton-like impression results. That impression sets behind a visceral set of lips and tongue, which is the creature’s prime seat of awareness. Sensual, organic, the tongue organ hangs, meaty, and with consciousness of a sea cucumber. It illuminates at the tip, drawing the attraction of a nearby moth–with mystery of purpose.