A CryptoPunk non-fungible token (NFT), which belongs to the rarest set in the collection, was sold for over $16 million worth of Ether (ETH).
The latest sale is the second-highest CryptoPunks transaction after a record-breaking purchase in February 2022.
On Monday, March 4, 2024, an anonymous buyer purchased CryptoPunk #3100 for 4,500 ETH, worth $16.03 million at the time of the sale. The pixelated piece spots blue skin and a bandana.
According to the CryptoPunks platform, the buyer initially offered a bid of 4,250 ETH but withdrew it on March 1. The bidder later increased the offer to 4,500 ETH on March 4, which was accepted by the seller.
CryptoPunk #3100 is one of the nine Alien Punks in the CryptoPunks collection, comprising 10,000 pieces, making Alien Punks the rarest and most expensive set.
In February 2022, Deepak Thapliyal, CEO of blockchain infrastructure company Chain, bought CryptoPunk #5822, another Alien Punk, for 8,000 ETH, valued at nearly $24 million at the time of purchase. The piece is currently the highest CryptoPunks sale.
There are currently two other Alien Punk NFTs up for sale for 5,000 ETH (value at 17.97 million) and 5,500 ETH (worth $19.7 million).
Created by Larva Labs in 2017, CryptoPunks is said to be one of the first NFT collections on the Ethereum blockchain. Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creator Yuga Labs bought the intellectual property of the collection in March 2022.
The total volume of all Punks traded, according to NFT marketplace giant OpenSea, stands at 1,223,620 ETH, which is equivalent to $4.3 billion at ETH’s current price.
However, it should be noted that since CryptoPunks have been traded at different ETH values over the years, this doesn’t mean that the total value of all Punks traded amounts to $4.3 billion.
Data from nftpricefloor.com showed that the floor price for one CryptoPunk NFT is approximately 57 ETH, with a 24-hour trading volume of 4,910.6 ETH ($17.6 million) and a market capitalization of 569,900 ETH ($2 billion), making it the top NFT collection.
Meanwhile, the big sale caused some part of the crypto community on X to state that NFTs might not be dead after all, with others stating that it was a further signal that the bull market was back.