NFTs are the main focus of the crypto markets for some time already. With more and more different projects coming to light, more and more people are beginning to show interest in the world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
What makes NFTs so interesting is the collectivist nature that they possess, not to mention their monetary value, which is also a big part of the entire mania that NFTs have caused. One of those projects is the CryptoPunks. If you already dabble in the arts of NFTs, you have definitely heard of the CryptoPunks project.
Here we will briefly go over general information about the project, finance-related information, and several more things you will need to know about them. That being said, we recommend you stick around for a couple of minutes, and hopefully, you will find out everything you need to know, so let’s not waste any more time and dive into the review.
What you'll learn 👉
What Are CryptoPunks?
With the advancement of technologies and the digital world came blockchain technology. It allowed for so many ideas to come to light and to be ultimately realized. Slowly but surely, it covered every part of the globe as the interest for it rose with each passing day.
Availability of the blockchain technology and its possibilities that provided drew the attention of musicians, creators, and artists of all sorts that began creating what we all know and love today, NFTs. One of those projects was CryptoPunks.
For those who might not know, a CryptoPunk is basically a unique 8-bit style avatar that is represented in the form of an NFT and has a resolution of 24×24 pixels. There are exactly 10,000 of them out in the market, and no more will ever be minted, so if you do not have one already, your only option is to buy a CryptoPunk from someone who already possesses one and is willing to sell it.
Every CryptoPunk is unique and special in its own way and the attribute, or attributes, determine the value of the CryptoPunk. The more attributes it possesses, the more it is ultimately worth.
The craze was so big even the celebrities such as Jay-Z, Serena Williams, Snoop Dogg, Steve Aoki, and many more bought their own CryptoPunks.
How CryptoPunks Got Started
The very start of CryptoPunks is said to be an experiment that was directed by two software developers, John Watkinson and Matt Hall, all the way back in 2017. They had one goal in mind, they wanted to create a software program that had the ability to generate thousands and thousands of one-of-a-kind avatars. In the end, the program generated exactly 10,000 unique avatars known as CryptoPunks.
The creators, Watkinson and Hall, had the initial idea of using the software program they created to simply develop an app, but something completely different happened, the avatars that were created became a staple, a pioneer that founded the idea of NFTs we know today and the development of the blockchain technology.
NFTs, digitally created forms of different art pieces, are kept and stored onthe Ethereum blockchain. With everything in hand, what Watkinson and Hall managed to do with their work is redefining the meaning of owning something online.
The project itself drew inspiration from the concept of the cyberpunk theme. The creators were inspired by many different movies and novels with the elements of cyberpunk, but the biggest inspiration probably came from the London punk scene from the 70s, drawing similarities to the free nature of the blockchain and its rise in popularity.
The biggest turn down for most people was the concept of owning digital art on the blockchain, yes everyone can take a screenshot or maybe even download it, but officially only you or whoever paid for the NFT truly own it, and because of this, the concept of NFTs kept increasing in popularity drawing more and more people to invest.
Why do they have value?
You might be wondering what provides value to something like an NFT, in this case, a CryptoPunk. Are they not just some pixelated avatars, what makes them so special? Well, as we mentioned, every single CryptoPunk avatar is unique in its own sense.
Furthermore, even though every avatar is unique, some of them are rarer than others and therefore fetch a much higher price on the market. What decided the rarity is the code itself that was used in the process of creating CryptoPunks. They consist of different species.
⚡️ First, we have humans, consisting of men and women, being the most common ones numbering more than 9,000, after which we have apes, zombies, and aliens. The rarest ones are aliens, which number only in few. If you are keen on obtaining one of the rarer, if not the rarest avatar out there, we hope you are prepared to cough up a lot of money as they are sold for pretty high prices in general.
Additionally, another factor that contributes to the final price of a CryptoPunk is the number of accessories it possesses. That being said, logically, the more accessories the CryptoPunks have, the more the price goes up. The highest number of accessories that a CryptoPunk has is seven. This makes CryptoPunk extremely expensive as well as one of the rarest among all of them.
You might be wondering what makes CryptoPunks so desired and what drives people to spend so much money on them. Well, basically, it is the collection aspect and, most importantly, the rising value of CryptoPunks, making them a great investment if you know what you are doing.
Who Owns the Most CryptoPunks?
As we mentioned, there is a limited amount of CryptoPunks in circulation. In today’s market, it is hard to come by a rare and valuable CryptoPunk. That being said, the one who possesses the biggest collection of CryptoPunks is none other than the American entrepreneur Gary Vee. Believe us when we say that his sizable collection did not come cheap.
When it comes to the collection, the two most notable CryptoPunks in his possession are number #2140 and number #2424. These two CryptoPunks are an Ape and a Zombie already, making them one of the rarest out there.
The CryptoPunks #2140, the Ape, cost Gary Vee an enormous amount of money, coming up to $3.7 million, putting it in the first place as the highest-selling CryptoPunk Ape at that time, only to later be shunned by the selling of CryptoPunk #4156, also an Ape, for a whopping 2,500 ETH or just about $10 million.
Lastly, Gary Vee owns a solid amount of CryptoPunks that possess the purple hat attribute, and in general, his whole collection is estimated at around $15 million or more.
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The Future of CryptoPunks
What can we expect from CryptoPunks in the future? Considering the current state, we can expect that it will continue its sales from one owner to another on the secondary markets creating a profit for the investors that purchased them before the price skyrocketed with the rise in popularity.
That being said, we cannot say for sure if the demand will stay the same, rise or decrease but considering that the entry price for the CryptoPunks keeps on rising, it shows great promise. The cheapest CryptoPunk for sale as of today has passed the $200,000 mark, and it keeps increasing.
With everything we said so far taken into consideration, the CryptoPunk community did show some discontent with the project. With the rise of the NFTs came more and more projects, so it is to be expected that sooner or later, some competition for the CryptoPunks would arise.
One of those projects is Bored Ape Yacht, which achieved a higher floor price compared to the CryptoPunks. With the market becoming more and more NFT focused, the creators of CryptoPunks did not make any public announcements on any issues such as what IP, as well as commercial rights, do the owners of CryptoPunks possess for their NFTs.
To makes things worse when a user named Punk4156, one of the leading in the community, sold his CryptoPunks for more than $10 million with a statement that it was “time to move on.”
As we previously mentioned before, there will be no new CryptoPunks minted, considering that the main attraction of the CryptoPunks is that there is a finite amount of them available and that they were one of the pioneers when it comes to NFT projects.
👉 That being said, the creators of CryptoPunks did begin new projects, for example, Meebits that fundamentally had the same concept as the CryptoPunks. With everything we said so far, the possibility that there might be additional development for the CryptoPunks is not ruled out.
In conclusion, no matter what, CryptoPunks changed the world of digital art for better or for worse. Additionally, CryptoPunks also reached into the art world outside the blockchain, being presented in the galleries around the world as well as in Miami’s Art Basel show.
It even reached as far as Hollywood, signing a contract with the United Talent Agency, bringing CryptoPunks to media outside the blockchain such as movies, video games, television, and so much more. What the future holds for CryptoPunks, we cannot say for certain, but what we can say is that there is probably a bright future awaiting CryptoPunks.
