The very first generated character in the Cryptopunks series sold for 36 thousand dollars over the weekend. Punk 1 is a male character with a mohawk and a smile on his face. The previous owner bought the Cryptopunk for 5 thousand dollars in April 2019.
This specific Cryptopunk isn’t all that special. Normally big sales are based on rare treats, like a zombie, beany or an ape. However, this is the very first Cryptopunks character ever. Similar with printed cards, the first edition has serious value as well.
We’ve seen similar things in the best. The Genesis cat from Cryptokitties is considered one of the most valuable non-fungible tokens on the market. The Genesis cat is one of the one hundred founders cats. In September Nate Alex bid 70 thousand dollars, but the owner did not accept the bid. Other founder cats are listed for more than 100 thousand dollars.
Since this Spring we’ve seen a number of sales on the Cryptopunks market that were bigger. Last month a collector paid 71 thousand dollars for an ape punk wearing a hoodie. This was a new record sale. Six months earlier the biggest sale had been 20 thousand dollars, and back then the average Cryptopunk was trading for 138 dollars. The cheapest punks are now trading for more than 1400 dollars.
What is Cryptopunks?
CryptoPunks is a crypto art initiative that generated ten thousand different 24×24 punk-looking avatars. There are a few rares ones, like apes, zombies and an alien. Besides being a digital collectible, the project doesn’t offer any additional usage. However, Cryptopunks are often part of digital art galleries in virtual worlds like Cryptovoxels and Decentraland.
We can’t say that Cryptopunks are technically advanced non-fungible tokens. However, it’s the first collectible art project ever that used the Ethereum blockchain to mint collectibles. Because of their historical significance, Cryptopunks are valuable digital assets. There are only ten thousand punks on the market. Most likely rarity and scarcity push up the value.
