CryptoPunk sales volume slides as common sense grips market…briefly
Earlier this week, CryptoPunks sales volume briefly slid, perhaps signalling the end of western civilization as the Punk boom appeared to be coming to an end.
Wishful thinking?
Actually, we may be seeing a wave of nostalgia flooding the market as OG punks are now being snatched up for even bigger money.
A single CryptoPunk Zombie (Punk #6275) was sold today for $3.9 million. Pranksy, a well-known NFT collector, purchased the Punk just 8 hours after it was listed for sale. Earlier this week, Pranksy purchased a forgery of a Banksy NFT.
Pranksy buys fake Banksy
So, Pranksy got punked? Why do I have absolutely zero sympathy for someone that spent $338,000 on a fake pixelated avatar? That’s perhaps material for another article.
Back to our $3.9M Crypto Zombie…
Amazingly, this was only the eighth highest sale in CryptoPunk history. The highest CryptoPunk sale is $11.8 million, which occurred in June at a Sotheby’s auction. Shalom Meckenzie, a member of the DraftKings board of directors, was the buyer.
$11.8 million. Let that number sink in.
A human being paid nearly $12 million for a pixelated punk. But we’re now in a world where this cartoon NFT could be flipped next week for twice that. Would the Greater Fool Theory apply? It seems not.
Old Punks
CyptoPunks are one of the oldest collections of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and their O.G. status apparently adds value to them. Lots of value.
The zombie Pranksy purchased today is one of only 88 Zombie Punks among the project’s 10,000 avatars. The avatar is one of 526 people who have a “shadow beard,” and only 428 people have the same dark mohawk.
A $6.27M shadow beard
The NFT is so rare that a bid of 1,600 ETH, or $6.27 million, has already been placed on the zombie.
According to CryptoSlam, the sale amounted to just under a third of CryptoPunk’s daily trading volume and was one of only 14 purchased today. Since then, only one CryptoPunk has been sold: a male wearing small sunglasses and a cap for the bargain price of $371,495.
Punks in decline?
Overall, Punk sales are declining. It is unclear whether this is due to people clinging to their CryptoPunks, which have since become a way to flaunt your wealth on social media sites such as Twitter, or if they have grown tired of the avatars. Or maybe, they’ve woken up and realized that they spent $6 million on something that is easily copied and pasted. I’ve been using several Ape and Alien avatars and so far, no lawyers have come calling. I didn’t spend a dime on them either.
Final thoughts
Sales of CryptoPunks increased from $14 million on August 22 to $134 million on August 23, before falling back to $47 million on August 25. On August 28, trading volume reached a new high of $195 million, the highest ever. Sales have since fallen to around $22 million per day, with the exception of a single surge to $40 million on September 1.
Instead, people are trading other NFT projects. Mutant Ape Yacht Club, a breeding project of The Bored Ape Yacht Club, has generated $220 million in the last week. Loot, a collection of randomly generated text images, has amassed a trading volume of $173 million.
CryptoPunks, once the most popular project on the market, have fallen to fifth place on CryptoSlam’s weekly sales leaderboard. How the mighty have fallen.
If you enjoyed this article you might also like: Visa Goes Punk: Buys Crypto NFT for $165,000 in ETH
Jay Speakman is a technology writer based in San Francisco, California. He writes on the topics of blockchain, cryptocurrency, DeFi and other disruptive technologies. Clients include Avalanche, Be[in]Crypto, Trust Machines and several blogs devoted to blockchain gaming. He will not rest until fiat currency is defeated.
