NFT Admin
In the past few years, there has been an uproar about NFTs, cryptocurrency, and meme stocks. For this reason, if you have indulged in the industry, you have likely already heard about CryptoPunk. It is needless to say that NFTs like Bored Ape Yacht Club or Matt Furie are the digital apes NFTs that celebrities like Eminem and Gwyneth Paltrow have invested millions of dollars in. However, there are many other famous projects, and CryptoPunks is one of them.
Table of Contents
- How Did It Start?
- The Importance Of CryptoPunks
- The Physical Lithographs
- Who Created The CryptoPunks?
- The Controversies Associated With CryptoPunks
- How To Purchase CryptoPunks NFT
- Reason Behind CryptoPunk’s Higher Value
- The Bottom Line
It’s pretty clear that the actual value of AMC stocks and Dogecoin is under constant debate, and CryptoPunks have already claimed their fame before they have even hit the financial markets. The punks are considered the earliest example of NFT on ETH and have become the ultimate inspiration for the ERC-721 standard that supports digital collectibles and art. So, if you want to get into details and see how CryptoPunk reached the point where it is today, we are sharing everything in this article!
How Did It Start?
According to the British Auction House Christie’s, the CryptoPunks are the alpha and omega of the cryptocurrency art movement. This project started in June 2017 – Larva Labs was behind this NFT, a team of two people, including John Watkinson and Matt Hall, who served as the creative technologists. It was launched as an experiment to understand the dynamics associated with demand and scarcity.
The NFTs are designed with the utilization of algorithmic templates, and each final NFT is measured around 24 by 24 with an eight-bit style – it was a pixel art picture, which was designed after taking inspiration from the London punk scene of the 1970s as well as the dystopian grit of cyberpunk. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that NFT was generated randomly and unchangeable once made live on the ETH network.
Given the unique methodology of the NFT, the collection has different variations, which were ranked according to the rarity – the rarity was determined by different attributes like hats, pipes, and beards. In addition, some of them were differentiated based on types – the least common was the light blue-skinned alien punk. Currently, there are 3840 female and 6039 male punks in the market, and some pop culture archetypes as well.
On top of everything, there are ethereal aliens, including 24 ape punks and 88 zombie punks with green skin. Moreover, eight punks don’t have any significant features and are known as genesis punks. Every character is considered an individual piece of art that exists as part of large-scale conceptual work. No piece can be replicated and comes with a profile page that shows information about the punk’s qualities and transaction history.
In the beginning, Larva Labs released around nine thousand punks for free, and anyone with an Ethereum wallet could get their hands on the punks. However, they had to pay the gas fees, which were around eleven cents then. On the other hand, the company released one thousand punks for itself, and the collection gained popularity when it was talked about in high-end media outlets, such as Mashable.
The Importance Of CryptoPunks
Before the years 2017 and 2018, most applications on the ETH blockchain were aligned with tokens, specifically the ERC-20 – a standard that allowed users to create fungible digital assets. In addition, it allowed digital assets to become mutually exchangeable in the ETH ecosystem. It is needless to say that the punks followed the prerequisites of ERC-20, but modifications were added by Hall & Watkinson to the software code; the modifications were meant to create the NFT standard.
At that time, the modifications were considered advanced in the digital ecosystem because the collectors could no longer own a part of the punk or a fraction of the token. These contributions and modifications helped create a framework for the NFT ERC-721 standard used by popular NFT marketplaces, such as OpenSea. In March 2022, around ten thousand CryptoPunks were considered the ERC-20 tokens as they weren’t identical.
When they were first released, the pictures of the punks were too large to be saved on the blockchain, which is why Larva Labs took the composite image’s hash and embedded it into their blockchain contracts. The owners only had to reference the metadata within the token to determine which NFT they had. For instance, CryptoPunk #405 refers to the 405th punk in a composite image.
So, CryptoPunk is considered as cola lection of 10,000 pixels images, and each image labels different personalities, combinations, and uniqueness to the character that are formed randomly from a series of 10,000-pixel images, which are categorized into male and female punk. For male punk, it includes 6,039 punks, and the remaining are part of female punk.
The Physical Lithographs
Many people don’t know this, but Larva Labs printed around twenty-four lithographs – these were handmade with the help of water and oil. The lithographs were signed by Watkinson, who is the co-founder. In addition to these physical punks, there were sealed envelopes with private keys. When the envelope was opened, it would endow the ownership of the punks to the purchase. Nine prints were put up in the Sotheby’s Auction, which was held in July 2021. As far as the value is concerned, five of these nine prints were sold between $191,170 and $292,755.
Who Created The CryptoPunks?
Contrary to usual belief, CryptoPunks was not launched as the community, and the team didn’t even develop a roadmap for the punks. On the other hand, the project was launched as an experiment by the founders of Larva Labs, John Watkinson and Matt Hall. Back then, the NFT space wasn’t what it has become today. For this reason, the initial growth was prolonged. In particular, the punk collection was made live in 2017, and many of them were given for free as long as you had an ETH wallet.
In particular, the Ethereum wallet was essential to collect the punk, and the supply was limited for people who had already invested in cryptocurrency. According to many people say, CryptoPunks has become top-notch because it has an organic community. In addition, it’s said that the NFT influencers realized sooner that their digital ownership would increase, and the ability to claim stuff on the digital ecosystem was precious.
Since 2017, CryptoPunks has shown incredible growth – from being a niche and simple fad into one of the most well-known and expensive NFT projects. Technically, it’s not the first project on the ETH chain, but it’s one of the earliest and has become the most influential. The people who held on to them have become multi-millionaires, and those who caught them before 2021 are incredibly fortunate to get higher ROI.
The Controversies Associated With CryptoPunks
There are two controversies associated with CryptoPunks, such as;
- Flash Loan
Last year in October 2021, one transaction was made for around 124,457 ETH under CryptoPunk #9998, which was the highest of all previous NFT sales. For this reason, there was speculation on social media about it being a scam, money laundering, or security exploit. According to Larva Labs, the purchase was made through a flash loan where the NFT owner purchased the NFT with borrowed money, and he managed to repay the loan with one blockchain transaction. As a result, the sale was invalidated from the NFT’s historical stats.
- Sotheby’s 104 CryptoPunks Auction
During the first few days of 2022, the auction of 104 CryptoPunks was launched, and the auction happened on 23rd February 2022. However, the seller changed his mind after twenty-three minutes of the auction and managed to withdraw from the auction.
How To Purchase CryptoPunks NFT
People in the NFT industry will eventually learn about CryptoPunks sooner or later, and it’s needless to say that everyone understands that these are extremely valuable. As far as the pricing is concerned, Alien Punk #3100 was solid for eight Ethereum back in 2017, which was valued at $2000, but in 2021, it was sold for 4200 Ethereum, which means it’s valued at $7.58 million. Currently, the rare ones sell for 150 Ethereum, but the prices have stabilized a bit.
Having said that, if you have sufficient Ethereum in the wallet, you can purchase CryptoPunks from Larva Lab’s official website. In addition, some auction houses are selling NFTs, so it’s important to keep your eye out, and you might be able to bag a sale.
Reason Behind CryptoPunk’s Higher Value
Over time, the CryptoPunks have become an apt way of investment, and many consider it a status symbol. According to GMoney, he purchased CryptoPunk because he wanted to get the status and fame that came with it. In addition, the NFT owners were considered to be the people who foresaw the growth of NFTs and go ahead of the curve.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that CryptoPunk has become a popular NFT and many people in the NFT industry are amazed at the organic growth of the NFT. It’s needless to say that people who got it for free in the beginning are incredibly lucky because they aren’t only challenging to find but expensive as well!
