In a notable twist this week, Ethereum saw a drop in value despite recently reaching its highest price in more than two years. Nevertheless, the current market lull hasn’t stopped one buyer from spending a significant amount of money on a rare NFT.
A CryptoPunks NFT, called Punk #7804, sold for over $16 million in ETH on Wednesday. This makes it the second largest sale in CryptoPunks history, in both ETH and USD.
CryptoPunk #7804
Punk #7804, who belongs to the exclusive group of 9 Alien Punks within the influential Ethereum NFT collection, changed hands for 4,850 ETH, which was equivalent to $16.42 million at the time of sale. This sale follows hot on the heels of another Alien Punk (#3100), which sold in early March for 4,500 ETH, or $16.03 million. The identity of the buyer of the most recent sale has not yet been revealed. The Ethereum wallet used for this purchase was funded through Coinbase.
The seller of Punk #7804, who purchased the NFT in 2021 for 4,200 ETH (then worth $7.57 million), posted on Twitter that while owning the Punk, he did not feel he had sufficiently valued the NFT had increased. “End of an era. For a long time I felt like an impostor by not living up to what 7804 deserved,” said the seller, known by the pseudonym Peruggia. “After much searching, I believe I have found the right buyer with the right vision to take this asset to the next level.”
Fifth place in ranking of most expensive NFT sales ever
The record sale of CryptoPunks occurred in February 2022, when a crypto startup CEO purchased an Alien Punk (#5822) for 8,000 ETH, or $23.7 million. Today’s sale ranks fifth on the list of most expensive NFT sales ever. The record is still held by Mike ‘Beeple’ Winkleman, whose digital artwork ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’ was auctioned for $69.3 million by Christie’s in March 2021.
Launched in 2017 by Larva Labs, CryptoPunks set the standard for tokenized profile photos and inspired later collections like the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The NFTs, which were originally given away for free, have generated secondary trading volume of nearly $2.8 billion. The cheapest CryptoPunks NFT on the market is currently listed for around 51 ETH, or $177,000. In 2022, Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, acquired the CryptoPunks IP.
Source: https://newsbit.nl/cryptopunks-nft-verkocht-voor-meer-dan-16-miljoen/
