Despite the bear market, CryptoPunks NFT #2924 recently sold for nearly $4.5 million worth of ETH, making it the fourth-highest CryptoPunks sale in its history.
In a time of declining NFT sales, a surprising pickup occurred when CryptoPunks NFT #2924 sold for nearly $4.5 million on Thursday. In its short history, the sale has been tagged as the fourth-highest CryptoPunks sale.
The purchase of #2924 is also the largest single NFT sale in recent memory. It happened when overall NFT sales are significantly down compared to sales from earlier this year.
Still, many collectors are taking advantage of the bear market and the dropping price of ETH to snatch up comparatively good deals. It is even more accurate in the case of more desirable NFTs, the blue-chip NFT collections to which CryptoPunks belong.
CryptoPunks NFT Makes History
Back in the days when the NFT hype was at an all-time high, people would spend millions just to get their hands on NFTs. However, with the current undesirable market conditions, some have applied the brakes where NFT purchases are concerned.
The same doesn’t hold, though, for the buyer of #2924, who didn’t hesitate to shell out 3,300 ETH to acquire the piece. In this eye-grabbing development, CryptoPunks NFT made history by churning out one of the most significant sales, translating to nearly $4.5 million at the time of purchase.
It remains unclear who the buyer was, although the piece was sold by a notable pseudonymous NFT collector, “seedphrase.” What is noteworthy is that before this huge sale, CryptoPunks NFT #2924 was sold in November 2020 for only 150 ETH or about $71,400 at the time.
CryptoPunks Set the Tone for NFT Avatars
CryptoPunks was a project launched by Larva Labs in 2017, making it an early precursor of the NFT market craze over the last two years. It’s considered one of the most valuable and influential NFT brands, setting the tone for profile picture NFTs or NFT avatars, including the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Doodles NFTs.
Ironically, in March, Larva Labs sold the IP rights of CryptoPunks NFTs (along with that of Meebits, another powerhouse NFT collection) to Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Apes. Even more ironic is that CryptoPunks NFT #2924 is an image of an ape, one of the 24 apes in the entire CryptoPunks collection, which comprises 10,000 unique NFT PFPs.
Incidentally, #2924 is touted as the 38th most rare NFT project by Rarity Tools based on its attributes. After it acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits in March, Yuga Labs has recently opened up the NFT collections’ commercialization rights to all owners. CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT owners can now use their NFT imageries for derivative art and projects.
CryptoPunks Sales History
Based on CryptoPunks’ sales history, #5822 is the most expensive Punk ever sold to this day. Deepak Thapliyal, CEO of Chain, purchased the alien-style for 8,000 ETH or roughly $23 million in February this year. The price was more than double the cost of the next highest-grossing CryptoPunks NFT. It almost became the highest-selling NFT sale of all time at the time of purchase; unfortunately, the sale price missed the mark by just a few million.
Overall, the sales have seen an almost 348% increase over the past day. In fact, at this time of writing, its trading volume has reached the 1 million ETH mark, surpassing those of the Bored Apes, which is at 669,000 ETH, and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (which, incidentally, is also from Yuga Labs) at 454,000 ETH.
The Trading Volume Has Surpassed That of Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club
To date, CryptoPunks sales have yielded close to $2.4 billion in secondary trading volume.
Nevertheless, despite the slight recovery in NFT sales noted over the past day, the NFT market is still in a slump. Using data from Dune, it was discovered that NFT trading volumes had dropped 97% compared to registered highs in January this year. Trading volumes slipped to $466 million in September from $17 billion at the beginning of 2022.
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