Deep in Crypto Winter, a CryptoPunks Ethereum NFT Sells for $2.6M

The crypto market has been down for months and NFT prices and trading volume have cratered as a result. But even amid the so-called crypto winter (in summer), a desirable NFT can still command a multi-million dollar price tag, as we saw last night.

Late on Tuesday, CryptoPunk #4464 sold for 2,500 ETH, or just over $2.6 million at the time of sale. This particular Ethereum NFT is one of just 24 apes in the entire collection of 10,000 profile pictures, and it features a vape pen, eye mask, and a durag.

In terms of ETH pricing, it’s tied with two other apes for the fourth-largest CryptoPunks NFT sale of all time, per the official marketplace. However, given the fluctuating price of ETH, the USD value of each sale varied dramatically.

For example, when CryptoPunk #4156 sold for 2,500 ETH in December 2021—by 4156, a notable pseudonymous collector and co-creator of the Nouns NFT project—the sale was valued at over $10.25 million at the time. When CryptoPunk #5577 sold for the same amount of ETH this past February, it was valued at $7.7 million.

Only alien-style CryptoPunks have sold for more ETH than the apes. The record sale for any single CryptoPunk—in terms of both ETH and USD—is CryptoPunk #5822, an alien that sold for 8,000 ETH in February, or $23.7 million at the time. It was purchased by Deepak Thapliyal, CEO of blockchain startup Chain.

CryptoPunk #4464 was sold by pseudonymous collector vapeape, also a Nouns co-founder. It’s not immediately apparent who purchased the $2.6 million Punk, although the same wallet holds 25 total CryptoPunks and has spent 3,600 ETH on them (currently $3.85 million) to date.

According to data from CryptoSlam, it’s the single largest NFT sale over the last 30 days, topping a pair of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs that sold for $1.2 million and just over $1 million, respectively.

An NFT is a blockchain token that represents ownership in an item, including things like profile pictures, artwork, collectibles, and video game items. The NFT market surged in 2021 to $25 billion worth of trading volume, with about $20 billion added to that tally so far in 2022. However, NFT trading volume has fallen sharply since early May amid the wider crypto market crash.

CryptoPunks is one of the most valuable and successful NFT projects around. Launched in 2017 by Larva Labs, the Ethereum project debuted as a free experiment, but has thus far yielded more than $2.3 billion worth of secondary trading volume amid growing demand.

Only Axie Infinity and the Bored Ape Yacht Club have posted larger all-time trading tallies, per CryptoSlam. Yuga Labs, creator of the Bored Apes, recently purchased the CryptoPunks IP from Larva Labs and unlocked commercial rights for owners, letting holders use their owned images to create products and other projects—much like the Bored Apes.