Someone Just Paid $4.5M for a CryptoPunks Ethereum NFT Despite Bear Market

Overall NFT sales might be down significantly from earlier this year, but collectors are using the bear market and the falling price of ETH to snap up relatively good deals on desirable digital art pieces.

Here’s a prominent example: CryptoPunks NFT #2924 just sold this afternoon for nearly $4.5 million worth of ETH—the largest single NFT sale in recent memory. Measured in ETH, the 3,300 ETH sale price is the fourth-largest all time for CryptoPunks—although it’s much further down the list when measured in terms of U.S. dollars at the time of sale.

CryptoPunk #2924 was sold by notable pseudonymous NFT collector seedphrase, although it’s not immediately clear who the buyer was. This particular CryptoPunks NFT was last sold in November 2020 for 150 ETH—just $71,400 at the time.

It’s one of just 24 apes in the entire CryptoPunks collection, which spans 10,000 unique NFT profile pictures, and is considered the 38th “rarest” NFT in the project by Rarity Tools based on its attributes.

CryptoPunks is one of the most valuable and influential NFT brands, as the Ethereum collection set the core template for modern profile picture projects. It influenced later hits like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Doodles, and CryptoPunks sales have yielded nearly $2.4 billion to date in secondary trading volume.

The project was launched by Larva Labs in 2017, an early precursor of the NFT market craze of the last two years. Larva Labs ultimately sold the IP rights to Yuga Labs—the Bored Apes creator—in March of this year. Yuga Labs has since opened up commercialization rights to all owners, letting them use their Punks imagery for derivative art and projects.

The all-time CryptoPunks sale record was set back in February when Deepak Thapliyal, CEO of cloud blockchain infrastructure startup Chain, purchased Punk #5822 for 8,000 ETH—nearly $24 million worth at the time.