Twitter users recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of the launch of the CryptoPunks NFT collection. A buyer paid more than USD 190 million for one of the collectibles.
The CryptoPunks NFT v1 collection recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, thus becoming one of the pioneers in that industry.
Since its launch in 2017, the cryptocurrency community has known CryptoPunks as one of its cultural icons. It is now among the highest-selling NFT collections in the market.
Five milestones will help remember the collection of the iconic pixelated characters inhabiting the Ethereum network.
The Launch of CryptoPunks Occurs in 2017
The Larva Lab studio, founded by Canadian software developers Matt Hall and John Watkinson, launched the CryptoPunks NFT v1 on June 9th, 2017.
However, they announced that CryptoPunks v1 was not official from Larva Lab due to an error in distributing the 10,000 copies. Their smart contract allowed buyers rather than sellers to withdraw the money, leaving many in the red.
That error in their code led the Larva Lab team to release CryptoPunks v2 to replace and reject the first version. CryptoPunks v2 are now the ones considered to be the official NFTs.
Buyers Pay over USD 16 Million for Nine CryptoPunks NFTs
In 2021, buyers paid nearly USD 17 million for nine CryptoPunks NFTs at the world-famous auction house Christie’s.
By the end of 2021, another person bought the most expensive CryptoPunk NFT in history at the same sales platform. The buyer offered 124,457 ETH for the collectible, currently equivalent to over USD 194 million.
However, the tracker of the auction house reported that the buyer sent the NFT back to the seller an hour later. That confirmed that it was a self-purchase, not a genuine sale.
A Cryptocurrency Enthusiast Has over 100 CryptoPunks
Twitter user 0x650d shocked many people with his response to why he spent so much money on 104 CryptoPunks NFT tokens. In August, the cryptocurrency enthusiast said he always chose wealth, referring to his acquisition.
He stated that he decided to believe in NFTs as store-of-value assets as they increase or maintain their warmth over the years. According to Coin Metrics, the sales volume of the CryptoPunks collection at OpenSea exceeded USD 40 million in 2021.
People Can Rent Their CryptoPunks NFTs through a Rental Protocol
In mid-2021, a rental protocol called reNFT created a licensing service that allows owners of NFTs like CryptoPunks to rent them. They would sign a transaction to grant renters the right to display the token as their own for over three months.
However, one of the conditions is that the owners must refrain from using it as an avatar on their social networks during the rental time. Although many consider that topic absurd, others defend the service arguing that the NFT market has potential.
Visa Shows off Its CryptoPunk NFT in Its Digital Art Collection
One of the most relevant reports on CryptoPunks in 2021 was the purchase of one of their NFTs by Visa. The payment technology company paid 49.50 ETH for the collectible, now equivalent to over USD 76,000.
Visa turned to a digital asset platform that facilitated the transaction to purchase that NFT.
By Alexander Salazar
