CryptoPunk Sells for $12.4 Million in Ethereum—One of the Biggest NFT Sales Ever

Yet another CryptoPunk has sold for an astonishing sum: On Thursday, an ultra-rare Alien Punk from the NFT collection traded hands for $12.38 million worth of Ethereum (ETH). 

Punk #635, one of just nine Alien Punks in the influential 10,000-piece Ethereum NFT collection, sold for 4,000 ETH this morning. The sale was facilitated by crypto art brokerage Fountain, with the piece going to an anonymous collector who has yet to reveal their identity. 

The eye-popping trade comes just weeks after two other Alien Punks sold for near-record shattering amounts. In early March, an anonymous crypto trader bought Punk #3100 for $16.03 million worth of ETH, in the second-largest on-chain CryptoPunk transaction ever recorded. Weeks later, Punk #7804—another Alien—sold for $16.42 million in ETH, taking the (silver) crown as the second-most expensive Punk sale in history. 

The largest CryptoPunks sale of all time took place in NFT heyday of early 2022, when a crypto startup CEO purchased yet another Alien Punk—#5822—for 8,000 ETH, worth over $23.7 million at the time. 

While those Punk transactions, and today’s, rank among the most expensive NFT sales of all time, they still pale in comparison to the all-time leader: "Everydays: The First 5,000 Days," an on-chain work by the artist Mike "Beeple" Winkelmann that sold for $69.3 million at a Christie’s auction in early 2021. 

The recent resurgence of mind-boggling price tags for CryptoPunk NFTs, however, appears reserved for that collection alone. CryptoPunks, arguably the first NFT collection to attract substantial value and relevance after their creation in 2017, appear to have maintained their position over the last two years as rare cultural artifacts. 

Other once-coveted profile picture (PFP) collections have struggled to recapture dominance since the collapse of the NFT market in mid-2022. The Bored Ape Yacht Club, for instance, has seen its assets' value shrink to a floor price barely above $40,000, according to data from NFT Price Floor. That’s down more than 90% from the peak USD price seen back in 2022.

Other collections that previously defined the NFT landscape, like Azuki and Doodles, have similarly seen their price floors drop by over 50%.

Edited by Andrew Hayward