Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are becoming more popular as investors and collectors seek to participate in the latest blockchain craze, and many of the prices paid for these artifacts are ridiculous.

Throughout 2021, NFTs for sale exploded in popularity, with millions of dollars in art collections being sold as digital jpegs, and some of the world's leading influencers and celebrities joining.

Despite what onlookers think of digital art, collections like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks have become some of the most valuable works of art you can buy these days.

Here are the top 5 most expensive NFTs ever sold, as recorded by Jacob Hale of Dexerto.

Top 5: CryptoPunk #7804 NFT Price at $7.6 M

First off is a CryptoPunk art to add to the list but it is by no means the last.

CryptoPunk #7804 is one of only nine 'Alien' CryptoPunks and comes complete with a fantastic cap, pipe, and shades.

This is one that you'd be thrilled to have minted when it first came out.

Top 4: CryptoPunk #3100 NFT Price at $7.67m

Digital art #3100 got considerably more valuable than its sisters on March 11, just one day after #7804 sold.

CryptoPunk #3100, another Alien punk with only a headband, is the seventh rarest CryptoPunk on the market.

Top 3: CryptoPunk #7523 NFT Price at $11.75m

Another CryptoPunk, #7523 is the third rarest in the collection with a price tag to match, making it the third NFT from the same brand to be on the top 5 list.

It blows all of its CryptoPunk peers out of the water.

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Top 2: Everydays: the First 5000 Days NFT Price at $69.3m

A Beeple piece of art that used to be the most expensive NFT ever sold for a reason now only sits at the second spot.

Beeple's work is so high-quality and well-liked in the community. t

This particular project is a collage of 5000 of his pieces. The creator made a commitment to make one piece of art every day starting in 2007, and here is the result.

Top 1: The Most Expensive NFT Ever Sold

With their exorbitant asking prices and unusual designs, NFTs have recently taken the internet by storm.

The most valuable NFT artwork thus far was sold for $532 million.

In the NFT marketplace, the 8-bit art style known as CryptoPunk has become quite popular, and number 9998 in the collection has theoretically just smashed records with its expensive price tag.

However, a little research reveals that not everything is as it seems, and our world record breaker may not be deserving of its title.

Could this outrageous sale been nothing more than a costly prank?

The sale of the NFT was announced by a CryptoPunk bot on Twitter for $532,414,877.01 making Beeple's NFT, which sold for $69.3 million, appear cheap in comparison.

According to Artnet, the buyer and seller were "one in the same," and the record-breaking price was the result of the NFT seller buying their own NFT to boost the price.

This is a relatively illegal move in the community of trading that tries to make an item appear much more valuable than it actually is, and NFT fans are calling the shady sale a prank.

Behind the scenes, there were a few large-scale loans and trading that contributed to the NFT's high cost.

The acquisition was conducted using the cryptocurrency Ethereum, and the Ether address used to purchase this NFT was valued at $532 million, resulting in an exorbitant price, as reported by Creative Bloq.

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