In 2022, everyone knows about NFTs, even if it’s fleeting knowledge. After all, it’s the hottest topic to discuss if you’re into money talks and more! But today, we’re gonna throw it back to the earlier days with CryptoPunks. How did this collection become such a sensation in the NFT world? And why are they this expensive and popular? Keep on reading to find that out and more! And if you find that kinda thing interesting, you should definitely check out the following projects:
What Are CryptoPunks?
So, our story actually starts in 2017. That’s when two creatives, Matt Hall and John Watkinson, became the alpha and omega of the crypto art movement. They created a collection of 10,000 randomly generated 24×24 pixel art images with 87 different attributes. Although most punks are human males and females, we also have extra rare types. We’ve got 88 zombies, 24 apes, and 9 aliens! The coolest thing about the collection is that when they launched, they were for free. You only had to pay the gas fees which were pretty low since there weren’t so many transactions.
CryptoPunks actually paved the way for so many projects. And we can potentially take it as far as being a catalyst for the digital trading industry to become this popular. We’ll get into details later on, but what you should know is that the collection is one of the most expensive today! In fact, the all-time total value of the sales of the collection is 616.81K ETH! That’s around $707M at the time of writing. Moreover, the lowest value of available punks for sale is 47.99 ETH (about $55K). So yeah, owning Cryptopunks is a great asset, even amidst the NFT crash!
What Are Wrapped CryptoPunks?
So as we already mentioned, the Punks dropped on the Ethereum blockchain before it even became popular. In fact, this collection introduced the whole concept of PFP NFTs and paved the way for the ERC-721 NFT standard! Although everyone kinda considers the Punks collection as NFTs, they actually predate the term and the standard. They actually have their own code to check the authenticity and ownership of each Punk.
However, due to bugs in the initial code, there has been a huge controversy surrounding the collection. You see, the v1 collection came with that buggy code, got scrapped, and got made into the v2 collection. But nothing gets lost on the blockchain. Hence, the birth of Wrapped CryptoPunks! Here’s everything you need to know about what went down. But in short, the wrapped punks are the v1s that got “wrapped” to be compatible with ERC-721. The whole thing also became extra spicy when Yuga Labs (BAYC creators) acquired the intellectual property of CryptoPunks and Meebits!
What’s the Most Expensive CryptoPunk?
So as you probably already know, CryptoPunks became some of the most expensive NFTs on the market. With everybody investing in them, their value shot up really fast! But the most expensive Punk certainly outdid the next in line, by two times to be specific. Somebody actually purchased Punk #5822 for a whopping 8,000 ETH on February 12, 2022. That was worth about $24M at the time of purchase!
Which Celebrities Own CryptoPunks?
So the list of celebrity Punk owners is long, but below you can find the list of 10 cool owners of CryptoPunks. And since we’re discussing that, why not mention those who are pretty invested in their Punks? For example, Jay-Z still has his CryptoPunk as his Twitter avatar, because why not? Moreover, Snoop Dogg currently owns 12 Punks, while the NFT sensation GaryVee has over 60! Talk about dedication! While some like to be collectors, some other celebrities became NFT creators themselves. You can check them out right here.
Now That You Know Everything About the Punkiest Collection…
You could be one of the lucky owners of CryptoPunks. But that means you’ll have to dump lots of cash in the process. Or maybe, check out the best NFT projects in 2022 to broaden your horizons! After all, CryptoPunks are the inspiration behind most PFP NFTs (like BAYC). Or maybe you can consider creating your own NFT collection and making money out of them instead of just flipping NFTs you own! Godspeed 🔥
