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The Merge NFT is a unique dynamic NFT collection that was created by a digital artist called Murat Pak and featured on the leading NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway in December 2021.
The collection that commemorates Ethereum’s transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism netted over $91.8 million during its brief 48-hour sale. This makes The Merge not only the most expensive NFT collection ever sold, but also the most expensive art piece sold by a living artist on a public sale.
The artwork that accompanied The Merge NFT drop on Nifty Gateway. Image source: niftygateway.com
What is The Merge NFT and how does it work?
The Merge is a unique and dynamic Ethereum-based non-fungible token (NFT) collection that made headlines and broke sales records in December 2021. After the sale was concluded, Nifty Gateway minted all 312,686 purchased tokens, also referred to as units of “mass”.
We're kicking off minting of mass tonight, anyone who purchased mass should see their NFT within the next few hours. We will also be putting a hold on moving mass out of your accounts momentarily to make the secondary market fair for everyone ⚫️ @muratpak pic.twitter.com/bkdXu4uFFU
— Nifty Gateway ? (@niftygateway) December 7, 2021
The artworks of The Merge NFTs are very basic as each token is represented by a simple white or yellow circle on a black background. The visuals are generated fully on-chain based on the formulas included in the smart contracts and not hosted off-chain as is the case with many other NFT collections.
What sets The Merge apart from all other NFT collections is the concept behind the collection, which utilizes a unique mechanism that causes the collection to change and develop over time. The collection’s smart contract prevents one address from holding multiple NFTs from the Merge collections – as soon as two NFTs from the collection are held in the same wallet, the masses of the two tokens merge. The result is one newly minted NFT with the combined mass of both pre-existing NFTs, which is depicted by a bigger circle on a black background.
The Merge NFTs in circulation diminishes as they are transferred between wallets (more precisely, bought by someone who already holds an NFT from the collection in the wallet), and their average mass increases. The total mass, however, remains constant.
An illustrative artwork depicting the merging of two mass tokens on the left and an equation explaining how the merging principle works on the right. Image source: niftygateway.com
What is the Ethereum Merge?
As already mentioned, The Merge NFT collection commemorates the Ethereum Merge, which was a historical event in Ethereum’s history that concluded the network's transition from the proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.
The transition process started with the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, also known as the Serenity upgrade, on December 1, 2021, when the proof-of-stake Beacon Chain (the chain that currently acts as the central coordination layer for the entire Ethereum 2.0 network) was activated. While ETH 2.0 staking deposits were enabled shortly after, the PoS and the PoW networks ran simultaneously up until September 15, 2022, when the transition concluded with The Merge event. Since then, the Ethereum network is secured solely by staking.
The move to proof-of-stake enabled Ethereum to address its scalability issues, which often caused extraordinary spikes in gas prices while the network still relied on PoW. In addition, the network had become more energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable as the energy consumption was reduced by more than 99% when the PoW chain was made obsolete.
How much money The Merge NFT sold for in December 2021?
The Merge NFTs were sold in an open edition style (the opposite of a limited edition sale) from December 2 to December 4, 2021. The starting price for the public sale of The Merge tokens was set at $575 per unit, with the price increasing by $25 every 6 hours, so the ones who bought the tokens in the last few hours of the sale had to cash out $750 per token. The number of tokens each participant could acquire was unlimited.
The Merge NFT sale saw participation from 29,983 unique address owners who bought a total of 312,686 tokens. The Merge NFT sale ended up netting an exceptional sum of $91.8 million. This crowns The Merge NFT as the most expensive artwork ever publicly sold by a living artist.
Nevertheless, this record is a bit controversial as it is only valid if we consider the whole collection as a single piece of art. While many claim that The Merge is actually a collection of artworks, it could one day, if all the NFTs are merged in one wallet, become one NFT and thereby one single unique art piece.
How much is The Merge NFT worth now?
Since its initial sale, the price of The Merge NFTs has fallen significantly. At the time of writing, one unit of mass has a floor price of $125, which is about 0.0428 ETH. Using this floor price puts the total market capitalization of the NFTs in circulation at slightly below 803 ETH (worth around $2.3 million).
Still, quite a few tokens get sold above the floor price, which means that the total value of the whole collection would likely be higher in the end. In addition, the price of an NFT from The Merge collection also depends on its mass. There are currently 8,210 unique addresses that are holding The Merge NFT, meaning that there are only that many distinctive NFTs in circulation and many of them have a mass larger than 1.
Top 4 The Merge NFTs with the largest mass that are currently being sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT marketplace and their respectful ask prices. Image source: niftygateway.com
The Merge: Regenesis NFTs by ConsenSys
Pak's Merge collection is not the only NFT collection that pays tribute to the Ethereum merge. Ethereum development studio ConsenSys has released a collection called The Merge: Regenesis, which was also designed to celebrate Ethereum's transition to Proof-of-Stake.
The collection was available for minting over a period of 72 hours and features three types of artworks, each commemorating one aspect of Ethereum's move to PoS: scalability, security and sustainability.
Due to the sheer amount of NFTs minted, this collection has a very low floor price of only about 0.0007 ETH ($2.05 at the time of writing).
The bottom line: The Merge is the most expensive NFT collection ever sold
Although The Merge NFT collection is not as valuable as it used to be when it was initially dropped on the Nifty Gateway marketplace, the sale of this unique dynamic NFT collection still represents a record-breaking event in the history of digital art and art in general. The Merge NFT collection sold for $91.8 million, surpassed Jeff Koons’ sculpture titled “Rabbit,” which sold for $91.1 million by a hair's breadth and became arguably the most expensive artwork sold publicly by a living artist.
In addition, The Merge NFT reigns on top of the list of the most expensive NFT collections. Even so, The Merge tokens have not made it to the list of the most expensive single NFTs ever sold just yet. Interesting and unique NFTs from collections such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club, for example, have a tendency to soar much higher as far as the price of a single non-fungible token is concerned.
We will conclude this article with a hard snap back to reality as those of us without ETH holdings worth millions of dollars in our digital wallets would likely find an article on how to find and participate in free NFT drops much more useful.