The OG non-fungible token collection CryptoPunks are back in NFT news in a big way. On March 20th, CryptoPunk #7804 sold for 4,850 ETH, or about $16.4 million at the time of purchase. The sale was the second-highest selling price ever for a CryptoPunk.
The Punk has several rare attributes that contributed to the sale price. They include a pipe (possessed by only 317/10,000 Punks), a cap forward (254/10,000) and small shades (378/10,000). However, what makes the Punk incredibly rare is it is one of only nine Alien Punks in the entire collection.
The NFT was sold by NFT collector Peruggia, who said on X that the sale signifies the “end of an era.” He noted that he had been looking for a buyer for over a year and felt he finally found someone with “the right vision to appropriately elevate this asset.” Shortly after the sale, Peruggia took to X again in true degen fashion, writing “I just sold an NFT! What floors are we sweeping?”
Peruggia purchased Punk #7804 in March 2021 for 4,200 ETH, or around $7.5 million at the time. In 2022, Peruggia was offered $18 million, but refused to sell. Either way, the NFT collector is still clearing a profit of nearly $10 million.
The news comes on the heels of another huge CryptoPunk sale in March. Earlier in the month, we reported that CryptoPunk #3100 sold for 4,500 ETH (around $16 million) — the third highest sale for the collection. The record for the top CryptoPunk sale still belongs to Punk #5822, which sold for $23.7 million in February 2022. Worth noting, all five of the largest sales have been Alien Punks.
CryptoPunks were created in June 2017 as an experiment to see if digital assets could have value. Around seven years later and the collection has done over $2.7 billion in sales (as per data from CryptoSlam), helped set of the NFT revolution, and answered the founder’s original question many times over with a resounding YES.
CryptoPunks Continues to Make its Mark on the NFT Space
In March 2022, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs, announced it had acquired the IP of CryptoPunks from its original creators, Larva Labs. Shortly after the purchase, Yuga Labs granted holders of CryptoPunks commercial rights to their PFP NFTs. Since then, we’ve seen CryptoPunks in Web3 news dozens of times.
Here are some of the top headlines from CryptoPunks over the past year:
- March 2024. Alien CryptoPunk Sells for $16 Million & Other Big NFT Sales
- February 2024. Gmoney Secures $1M ‘Iconic’ Loan on Ape CryptoPunk
- December 2023. Yuga Labs New “CryptoPunks” 721 Wrapper Revealed
- September 2023. Yuga Labs Teases New CryptoPunks Documentary
- August 2023. Beeple Purchases First PFP: CryptoPunk #4593 for 114 ETH
- April 2023. CryptoPunks NFT Goes On Display at Centre Pompidou
Whether its news of big sales, new features and projects from Yuga Labs, or the recognition of the Punks as an iconic piece of the digital art movement by the world’s top museums, there’s no doubt that CryptoPunks has played a pivotal role in NFT history. The latest sale of CryptoPunk #7804 for $16.4 million adds another chapter to that history.
It’s also a sign that this NFT market could be turning bullish. At Rarity Sniper, we certainly hope so.