Key Takeaways:
- CryptoPunk #5822 sold for 8,000 ETH, which was approximately $23.7 million at the time of sale.
- Deepak Thapliyal bought the NFT from CryptoPunks developer Larva Labs’ own online marketplace.
Dozens of CryptoPunks have sold for a million dollars or more in ETH, but today, the collection shattered its previous record with a nearly $24 million sale. On Saturday, CryptoPunk #5822 sold for 8,000 ETH, which was approximately $23.7 million at the time of sale. Deepak Thapliyal, CEO of cloud blockchain infrastructure firm Chain, bought the NFT from CryptoPunks developer Larva Labs‘ own online marketplace.
The previous high price paid for a CryptoPunk was $11.8 million. The previous highest price was paid by DraftKings’ largest shareholder Shalom Meckenzie at a Sotheby’s auction in June 2021. Meanwhile, the largest on-chain sale occurred in December, when the pseudonymous 4156 sold his namesake Punk for $10.26 million in ETH via the Larva Labs marketplace.
Thapliyal tweeted that he paid for the CryptoPunk with leverage via the DeFi protocol Compound Finance, telling Compound founder Robert Leshner, “Thanks to Compound Finance I am able to still [hold] ETH while buying this. Basically long’d ETH to punk-in.” His new Punk features the most uncommon avatar type: alien. Only nine CryptoPunks are aliens out of the entire collection of 10,000 avatars. This Punk was last sold in July 2017 for 8 ETH or slightly more than $1,600 at the time.
The sale on Saturday was the fourth-highest ever for a single NFT. Last March, Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” set a single-NFT sales record of $69.3 million. The sale of artist Pak’s “Clock” NFT to AssangeDAO this week comes in second place, with a USD value of just under $54 million. In November, Beeple’s “Human One,” which combines a physical/digital hybrid sculpture with an NFT, sold for $29 million, placing it third.
