I know some of us know about cryptopunks already and some are still trying to understand what they are and the big question is why are they so damn expensive?
So what cryptopunks are, is that they are collections of unique collectibles character that are up to 10,000 and each of them (cryptopunks) are generated in a unique way that two can’t be the same. The cryptopunk is a nostalgic pixel image of 24x24 that is generated algorithmically and they are some rare ones that come in different types like Aliens, Apes and Zombies.
The beauty about it is that each cryptopunk has its own profile showing why they are unique and their attributes like beanies, hoodies and helmets etc. and their attributes vary in values too. And all cryptopunks have what they call proof of ownership that is stored on the Ethereum blockchain, which means a single person can be the sole owner of each cryptopunk.
They also have what they call status which also signifies what and whatnots of each of them. For example, every cryptopunks is shown by its own background of colors, like the cryptopunks with red background are the ones that can be put up for sale, the ones with blue can’t be put up for sale and not for sale, while the cryptopunks with purple background are the ones that already have an active bid currently on them.
And why are they so important in the crypto world?
Cryptopunks are generally first of its kind so they have every right to be important and regardless of that, they are regarded as a catalyst for the current modern crypto art movements and it’s also an inspiration for the ERC-721 standard.
They are two things that will be explained, first is why they are expensive and the second is why they are so valuable.
First of all, there are on 24 ape cryptopunks in existence as a whole and the rarest of them is the rare ape cryptopunk #4156 and in December last year it was sold for about $10 million equivalent to 2,500 ETH. Also, Visa also bought a cryptopunk for their collection they have, which is a permanent collection in August 2021. With all these, the cryptopunk #4156 became one of the rarest punk in the collections.
Secondly, what makes them valuable is that the cryptopunks are one of the first ever NFT project to be ever created on the Ethereum blockchain making it valuable the way it is and it is said that only 10,000 cryptopunks will be made available and this has created scarcity among various collectors and making the value increase.
The value of each cryptopunks differs from each other and this depends on their rarity of their attributes and their species because cryptopunks that have multiple rare attributes can be bought or sold at a very high price. For example an alien cryptopunk #7804 wearing a hat and sunglasses and also smoking a pipe was sold for over $7 million due to its rarity.
In total there are 9 Aliens cryptopunks, 24 Apes, 44 wearing a beanie, 78 with buck teeth, 128 rosy cheeked punks and 8 cryptopunks that has no distinctive features.
Heard of Cryptopunks on paper?
These were done in 2018, when the creators physically printed 24 unique punks as lithographs and each physical punk was accompanied with their own private keys sealed in an envelope, and these keys served as ownership of the cryptopunk asset itself.
For the last 12 months, the number of cryptopunk sold is about 12,100. And the lowest cryptopunk price available is about $188 USD which is equivalent to 60.69 ETH. The total value of cryptopunks sold so far is about $1.9 billion which is also equivalent to 644.55K ETH.
When cryptopunks were first designed, they were meant to be claimed free but now they can be purchase through the LarvaLabs marketplace and the prices of each of them have increased drastically over time.