CryptoPunks: NFTs That Made History

CryptoPunks are one of the first Ethereum-based non-fungible tokens. These are algorithmically generated unique digital works of art of 24×24 pixel size. There are only 10,000 unique CryptoPunks. Most of the punks are human characters, i.e., 6039 are males and 3840 are females NFTs. Some special categories like Zombie (88), Ape (24), and Alien (9) are also present. Each of these punks has its page that contains the details about its features, owner, availability status, and transaction history.

Launched in June 2017, CryptoPunks was developed by American studio Larva Labs. The project was led by two Canadian software developers, Matt Hall and John Watkinson.

The supply of CryptoPunks is fixed. The number of CryptoPunks can never be more than 10,000. These punks were originally distributed for free and quickly claimed by Ethereum wallet users.

Each punk is non-identical. They all have different traits like skin color, hairstyle, accessories, etc. that make each of them completely distinguishable from one another. Some of them have extremely rare attributes. A pair of aliens with numbers 7804 and 3100 are the most expensive punks to date. Users can purchase these punks via the marketplace. You can check and place a bid on punks that are available for sale. One can copy the image file in their local system, but it can be officially owned by a single person on the Ethereum blockchain.

Characteristics

Punks are categorized based on various characteristics. Within each categorization, you will also find the following details about punks in that section:

  • Total number of punks
  • Number of available punks
  • Average sale price
  • Lowest Price
  • Example for reference
 Punk Type

All 10,000 punks are divided into these 5 categories:

CryptoPunks
Attributes

Punks were also categorized based on attributes. Attributes play a vital role in making these punks unique.  A huge number of permutations and combinations of these different attribute types helps in creating the unique digital item.

Some of the examples of the attributes are listed in the below screenshot.

CryptoPunks

Attribute Count

Punks may possess 0 or multiple attributes. Below is the list of punks that contain 0 or more (max 7) attributes.

CryptoPunks

Usage Guide

To explore and to buy these punks, visit their website.

CryptoPunks

As we have mentioned that CryptoPunks are Ethereum-based NFTs, so to access these NFTs and platforms, users are required to connect their Ethereum (MetaMask) wallet.

Connect your MetaMask wallet.

From the homepage, you can get complete details about the recent transactions, punks available for sale, wrapped punks (convert CryptoPunks into ERC721), overall stats, etc.

If you are planning to buy some punks, then scroll the CryptoPunks homepage and search for the option For Sale.

CryptoPunks

As you can see from the above screenshot, currently the platform has 1,413 items for sale. Click on the hyperlink to see the details of all available items on sale.

Once you click on it, it will redirect you to a page where you can choose your desired item and place an order.

CryptoPunks

Select your desired punk. We have randomly selected CryptoPunk #4951.

CryptoPunks

The page lists the characteristics of that particular NFT, its current owner, and its entire transaction history.

Interested users can perform two activities here. They can either buy the NFT if they are willing to pay the quote set by the owner or they can bid on it.

If you want to place a bid, you can click on the Bid button and enter your amount.

CryptoPunks

To buy the punk, you can directly click on the Buy button and then confirm the MetaMask transaction.

The price of the punks is high. You should have enough ETH in your account to pay for the gas charges and asset cost, otherwise the wallet will throw an insufficient fund error message.

Recent Top Sale

You can check the top sales of these NFTs. It lists the punks in order of their USD value.

CryptoPunks

At the time of writing this article, one CryptoPunk with item number #3100 was sold for 4.2K ETH (then price $7.58M) on Mar 11, 2021.

Item number #7804 is holding the second position with a selling price of 4.2K ETH (then price $7.57M) on Mar 11, 2021. Both of these punks belong to the Alien category.

Platform Statistics

Now let us see the overall statistics of the platform and find out how it is dominating the current NFT market.

You can check the Dapp website that lists the users and trading volume of the NFT marketplace.

CryptoPunks

The report shows that CryptoPunks are currently ranked at the #2 position with a monthly trading volume of $194.45 million. Though it has seen a drop of 26.37% compared to last month’s trading period.

If we look at the Ethereum NFT market size, CryptoPunks hold a significant position by occupying 69.4% of the market, along with a valuation of $54.17 million currently out of the total NFT volume of $78.02 million.

CryptoPunks

Important: Note that these figures were taken at the time of writing this article. Since the NFT market is quite volatile and continuously changing, the figures may not remain the same at a later date.

Social Presence

Website 

Twitter

Discord 

Conclusion

The NFT market is growing very fast. We have seen a steep user inclination towards NFTs, and the reason being that it provides ownership rights to the creator. Recently, an NFT item titled Everydays: the First 5000 Days by a digital artist named Mike Winkelmann (professionally known as Beeple) was sold for a whopping $69.3 million at Christie’s in 2021, which gained the attention of the entire world. This is the highest price ever paid for an NFT art piece. However, there is no such valuation system that can calculate the price of any NFT, and hence, the exact monetary value of an NFT cannot be accurately predicted. It completely depends upon the buyer’s wish how much he is willing to pay for an item. CryptoPunks, being the first of their kind with a fixed supply and uniqueness, hold a significant place in the history of Ethereum-based NFTs.

 

Resources: Dapp Medium Blog

Read More: Blank: A Privacy-Focused Browser Extension Wallet

 

Featured image courtesy of Larva Labs.

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