Today, the non-fungible token (NFT) market is a frenzy of speculation. CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins are leading the way, pushing seven-figure sales. CryptoPunks may have won the sales war with a dozen-plus sales over $180,000, but a Pudgy Penguin took home the prize for the highest single sale. The market clearly shows a duality of extremely concentrated high-value trades alongside a wider market of overall engagement with numerous NFT collections.

CryptoPunks proved their blue-chip NFT status once again with just 11 CryptoPunk traders recording six sales of $1.09 million. This largely quantitative activity masks the collection’s attraction in general, but particularly to elite investors – evidenced by the collection’s high average transaction value and elite-only participation. Other collections made notable impacts.

CryptoPunks Dominate High-End Sales

An interesting sale on the higher end was CryptoPunk #8124, which sold for $214,310. CryptoPunk #1834 wasn’t far behind at $194,500 sale price.

Other CryptoPunks that sold for exorbitant figures were CryptoPunk #812 at $190,530 and CryptoPunk #839 at $183,970. Leading the royal flush—four of the top five highest sales—was CryptoPunk, emphasizing their continued prominence in the NFT space.

One other NFT collection was able to top CryptoPunks list—albeit in a single 24-hour sale.

Pudgy Penguins Soar to Top Sale

At the time of its sale, Pudgy Penguin #77 had the highest single sale ever in a rolling 24-hour period, selling for $244,110. It quickly became obvious with this female Pudgy Penguin sale that the value and desirability of Pudgy Penguins was clearly rising within the NFT market.

For example, Pudgy Penguins gained huge gross sales of $1.67 million from simply 28 gross sales. This beat CryptoPunks’ $1.09 million, showing that the average sale value was extremely high and that the market was very interested in these NFT penguins.

Mutant Ape Yacht Club has a total sales volume of $334,760 with 32 sales. It missed the value of each individual sale that CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins achieved.

Broader NFT Marketplace Activity

Outside of the big sales, there was plenty of action across other NFT projects and marketplaces. Courtyard just set new marketplace highs with $1.16 million in volume and 1,940 active traders.

Moonbirds had $407,370 in sales over 47 transactions. Sorare, a fantasy sports NFT platform, has seen 18,990 recent sales, with 24-hour trading volume spiking to $326,160.

Zuki placed tenth, creating a return of $266,130 over 29 trades. These are strong signs of a healthy, creative and growing NFT market outside of headline-making sales like CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins.