4 min read
All of the major “blue chip” Ethereum NFT collections have taken a massive hit in value over the last couple months amid the wider crypto market crash, and CryptoPunks was no exception. But following a pair of multi-million-dollar sales in the collection, the price for even the cheapest NFTs from the project has grown substantially over the last week.
On Sunday, the price floor for CryptoPunks—that is, the cheapest available NFT listed on a secondary marketplace—rose above $100,000 worth of ETH for the first time in two months, since May 18, according to data from NFT Price Floor. As of this writing, the floor price for CryptoPunks sits at 84.85 ETH, or about $113,500.
Measured in U.S. dollars, the entry-level price for CryptoPunks has surged nearly 31% over the past week. In part, that’s due to the rising value of Ethereum, which itself is up 27% over the last seven days, per data from CoinGecko.
But that’s not the whole story here. When measured in terms of ETH, the CryptoPunks floor is still up nearly 12% over the past week, and nearly 27% over the last month. However, that’s not a market-wide trend for high-value NFTs.
For example, the Bored Ape Yacht Club—which has a floor price of 94 ETH right now, or about $125,750—has seen its ETH price floor fall 5% over the past week. But thanks to the rising value of ETH, the USD floor has risen nearly 11% this week.
An NFT is a blockchain token that serves as a proof of ownership to an item, often digital goods like profile pictures—as in this case—as well as artwork, collectibles, and video game items. The NFT market grew to $25 billion worth of trading volume in 2021, with approximately $20 billion more added to that tally so far in 2022.
CryptoPunks is one of the most successful projects in the space. Larva Labs launched the collection in 2017 and initially gave away the NFTs for free. The project has since become something of a status symbol for crypto industry players. To date, the collection has yielded more than $2.3 billion worth of trading volume, including a record sale of $23.7 million (8,000 ETH) in February.
This week’s price climb follows a pair of multi-million-dollar CryptoPunks sales. One sold for over $2.6 million (2,500 ETH) on July 13, while another sold for $3.3 million (2,691 ETH) two days later. Both are rare ape avatars in the collection of 10,000 profile pictures, and both sales rank among the five largest on-chain CryptoPunks sales when measured in ETH.
Even at a current floor price around $113,500, CryptoPunks have still lost significant value over the course of this year. The floor hit a 2022 peak of more than $260,000 on January 3, and remained as high as $241,000 as recently as April 4. But like the Bored Apes and other popular NFT collections, prices collapsed as the cryptocurrency market tanked.
CryptoPunks was long considered the most valuable NFT profile picture project until last December, when the Bored Ape Yacht Club surpassed its floor price. According to CryptoSlam, the two projects are neck-and-neck when it comes to all-time secondary trading volume, with approximately $2.33 billion for each collection.
In March, Bored Ape creator Yuga Labs purchased the IP rights to CryptoPunks from original creator Larva Labs, bringing both popular projects under one roof. Yuga Labs has since enabled CryptoPunks holders to commercialize their owned images, as with the Bored Apes, remedying a long-held point of contention for some Punks owners.
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