NFTs are a cryptographic representation of tangible or intangible items on the blockchainblockchain. They represent ownership of whichever asset they are linked to (this can be real estate, art, comic books, or just about anything). But all focus is on punks—the original NFT.
Called the “Punk #1651,” the six-figure CryptoPunk features punk rock-styled facial sideburns, maroon sunglasses, and a rainbow hat. It is one of 6039 male punks (out of the total of 10,000)—a rare commodity in NFT circles.
Punk #1651 was claimed for free by 0x0ed6fe (the previous owner) in 2017. They seemed to have rejected multiple bids for the art piece for $14 and $54,000 in the years since, before finally selling it this morning.
The great big punk market
This morning, “Pranksy NFT,” a popular, anonymous collector of digital art, bid over $500,000 on Punk #4156—one that didn’t even feature sideburns or a beanie. If this bid is accepted, it would become one of the largest NFT sales ever.
The big money bids don’t end there. Last month saw Punk #2890 sell for over 605 ETH, or over $760,000 then. Some market participants heralded the sale at the time, but some others were more skeptical, stating the punks were simply being bid at a high price to generate hype for the project.
Buyers, however, aren't shying away yet. Data from CryptoPunks shows that the cheapest punk on the open market is selling for over 9.48 ETH (≈17,188), or the price of an average sedan.
Is it sustainable?
Such sales are a big step for the relatively small NFT sector, which accounts for less than 2% of the entire crypto market. NFTs accounted for less than $50 million in sales in 2019, but 2020 saw over $250 million in total sales. The hype increased even further in 2021, with data showing over $100 million worth of NFT art exchanged hands in the past 30 days alone.
This weekend, a new Ethereum project called Hashmasks sold a collection of 16,000 pieces of art for about $9 million, making its founders suddenly and unexpectedly rich.
Ethereum art has been taking the cryptocurrency world by storm recently. Last December, over $8 million was sold in crypto art, featuring renowned crypto artist Beeple selling NFTs you can hang on your wall. The following month, Rick & Morty creator Justin Roiland decided to give it a shot, and sold some of his sketches for a to...
Not everyone is sold on the promise, however. Litecoin creator Charlie Lee criticized the NFT market in a tweet yesterday, stating that unlike real-world art, NFTs take little-to-no effort or money to issue.
The problem with NFTs is that they are Non-Finite Tokens. There is zero cost to create unlimited number of tokens.
Sure, Justin Roiland's NFT is unique and awesome. But what's stopping Matt Groening or Mike Judge or thousands of other artists from creating millions of new NFTs? https://t.co/anlEmfhmPW
Even some NFT proponents are now criticizing the huge sums involved. Piers Kicks, head of gaming at crypto research firm Delphi Digital (which picked up over $162,000 worth of digital art last year), told Decrypt that the astronomical prices of some NFTs were making them unattractive to newcomers, and that there seemed to be a large overlap in the players of these high-stakes signaling games.
American rapper Post Malone has teamed up with Fyooz, the social money platform that issues non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the name of music and sports celebrities.
The first drop for Post Malone will be the Celebrity World Pong League NFT. Those holding a sufficient quantity of FYZ NFTs—the native token of the Fyooz platform—will be airdropped new NFTs. These airdropped tokens will then enable them to enter the Celebrity World Pong League and play beer pong against Post Malone.
Post Malone at a...
He stated that the main draw of CryptoPunks, for now, was their historical collectability as they were the first-ever NFTs on Ethereum. But it’s a point that loses significance in the long-term: “How many people know who Tim Berners-Lee is or what the ARPANET was?” Kicks said, referring to the relatively low fame of the World Wide Web inventor among the younger populations.
He added, “Very few people actually care about their digital heritage. In 10 years, when there are billions of NFTs, even CryptoPunks could well be lost in the void.”
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