Amid a wild market-wide bullrun for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), an
ultra-rare “alien” CryptoPunk has sold today for 605 Ether, worth over
$750,000 at today’s prices.
CryptoPunks are widely considered to
be the original NFT project, released even before Cryptokitties, the
blockchain-based collectibles project that propelled NFTs to mainstream
consciousness. CryptoPunks developers Larva Labs report that Punks have
accounted for $26 million in lifetime sales on their native marketplace,
and the average sale price for Punks over the past year has been
$6,199.
Each Punk has unique attributes, such as background color,
accessories, and even some ultra-rare features, such as an “alien” or
“zombie” appearance. The Punk that sold today, #2890, is one of nine
alien Punks in existence.
The bidding for the Punk was competitive throughout the last week, with DeFi megawallet-turn-Twitter personality 0x_b1
putting in a 500 ETH bid. The Punk was last sold in July of 2017 for 8
ETH, meaning the owner made a 75x return on their investment.
The
new owners are a group of investors that include FlamingoDAO, a “NFT
collective that supports and collects premium NFTS,” according to a
Flamingo spokesperson. The official FlamingoDAO Twitter handle confirmed
the purchase with a meme:
“It's simple: Cryptopunks is a groundbreaking project; it pre-dated
the ERC 721 standard and crypto kitties,” said the spokesperson on the
investment thesis. “Aliens are the rarest form of Cryptopunk and we
believe that the acquired Alien will be prized by collectors over time
and mature into an iconic digital art piece.”
Crypto art collector
@gmoneyNFT, who himself dropped 140 ETH on a Punk earlier in the month,
thinks that the alien is a fine investment despite the sky-high
valuation.
“I think it was a great purchase. As the world moves
more digital, the digital "flex" will be more and more important. It's
how humans operate in the physical world. It won't change in the digital
realm,” he said.
Long-derided as a secondary usecase for
blockchain, sales like today’s demonstrate that NFTs are just beginning
to have their day in the sun. NBA Topshot, a collectible highlight project from Dapper Labs, has proven to be tremendously popular, and Axie Infinity’s native critters have been selling for remarkable prices as of late as well.
Some
critics have called into the question the sky-high prices rare NFTs
have been fetching, however, arguing that simple digital scarcity is a
shaky foundation on which to justify a $750,000 sale. @gmoneyNFT
dismisses these criticisms, saying that there are plenty of real-world
analogues that make just as much — or as little — sense.
“Why
would someone pay millions of dollars for an original Andy Warhol
screen print when you can buy the same one online for $20? Why would
someone buy a pair of yeezy's for $300 when you can buy a fake from the
same factory, made with the same materials for much less? Humans like to
feel special. The provenance has value.”
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/ultra-rare-alien-cryptopunk-nft-sells-for-605-eth-or-750-000
