By
Mayowa Adebajo
November 29th, 2023
CryptoPunks are some of the oldest NFTs in the crypto ecosystem. They were introduced back in 2017, and have since gained prominence as ones of the most valuable NFTs.
British auction house Christie’s has announced the sales of 9 CryptoPunks Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from Larva Labs for $16,962,500.
#AuctionUpdate 9 rare CryptoPunks from Larva Labs' own collection makes history realizing $16,962,500 pic.twitter.com/qsPs5nqVYY
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 12, 2021
Just like other highly valuable NFTs, the 9 CryptoPunks are super rare digital artworks from Larva Labs’ own collections. The sale marks the very first time Christie’s will be selling an NFT in an auction since the historic sale of Beeple’s EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5,000 DAYS. As reported by Coinspeaker at the time, the Beeple masterpiece sold for as high as $69.3 million in Ethereum.
NFTs are digital artworks or collectibles that help register ownership or identities on the blockchain. NFTs are seen by many as a revolutionary offshoot of blockchain technology with numerous use cases. This positive sentiment about NFTs has stirred a spike in the prices of these pieces, of which Beeple’s Everydays is just one.
The 9 CryptoPunks were sold as one, and they mark a new milestone of the total supply of 10,000 released by the Larva Labs team. Each CryptoPunks is a tiny, pixelated portrait of randomly generated faces, which bears a remarkable difference from one another. In other words, no two CryptoPunks can have exactly the same features.
CryptoPunks are some of the oldest NFTs in the crypto ecosystem. They were introduced back in 2017, and have since gained prominence as ones of the most valuable NFTs around today. According to Decrypt, a single CryptoPunks has sold for as much as $7 million, with 3 out of ten of the most valuable NFTs being CryptoPunks.
It is unclear at the time of writing who threw in the winning bid for the Christie’s auctioned CryptoPunks.
CryptoPunks NFTs to See New Rivals, Meebits from Same Creators
While CryptoPunks have witnessed massive growth since they were unveiled, the Larva Labs team is introducing a new project called Meebits. Meebits is a graduation from the 2D 8-bit-pixelated characters CryptoPunks were made of and are notably 3D-based Avatars.
Meebits are designed to be more sophisticated than CryptoPunks, and Larva Labs co-founders, Matt Hall and John Watkinson hope that through the proposed marketplace for the new project, the NFTs will see an equal level of success that CryptoPunks has recorded to date.
Besides Larva Labs, many new projects are seeking an entry into the NFT metaverse to capture the growing market and meet the ever-rising demand. One of such is the digital avatar platform Genies. The startup has secured $65 million in funding from key investors in crypto to create a new NFT Marketplace in partnership with Dapper Labs.
The new NFT marketplace from the duo of Genies and Dapper Labs is dubbed the ‘Genies Marketplace’ and it will seek to become the new “Amazon of Digital Wearable NFTs.” These and other initiatives will help take Non-Fungible Tokens into the mainstream adoption era.