Guide to CryptoPunks: Are They “Digital Antiques”

CryptoPunks are collectible ERC-721 tokens hosted on the Ethereum Blockchain and stimulated the “profile picture” NFT movement. CryptoPunks was among the first NFT collections from Larva Labs and laid the groundwork for upcoming NFT projects.

What is a CryptoPunk?

A CryptoPunk is a 24*24 pixel, 8-bit, punky-looking NFT art image. CryptoPunks are algorithmically generated and are unique, unalterable, and have no chance of complete similarity to one another.

The project was officially introduced in June 2017; 10,000 CryptoPunks were created by Larva Labs, and 9,000 CryptoPunks were offered free to claim by early cryptocurrency users.

The remaining 1,000 CryptoPunks, termed DevPunks, are numbered between 1 and 1000. These are rare punks tend to be priced higher than the others. Most CryptoPunks sell between $350,000 and $500,000 while there are some that are being sold for millions.

CryptoPunks are available to be bought and sold on third-party marketplaces such as OpenSea, Rarible, etc. Some punks are also auctioned at these marketplaces. 

Why Buy CryptoPunks

The price of the CryptoPunk collection rose exponentially around Aug 2021. With a floor price starting around under $100 and skyrocketing to millions in April 2022. Many view CryptoPunks as “digital antiques” of sorts, the “storage of value” of which is currently being determined by markets throughout the course of history.

How to Recognize a Punk

Punks are divided into five general categories: 6039 male punks, 3840 female punks, 88 Zombie punks, 24 Apes, and 9 Aliens. The rare avatars are naturally more costly.

Further, these punks can have a combination of 87 attributes. You could buy a Beanie, Choker, Pilot Helmet, Tiara, Buck Teeth, Welding Goggles, Pig Tails, Rosy Cheeks, Cowboy hat punk, etc., depending on the type of hat, glasses, hair, race, or the skin color it has.

There are 4501 punks with any of the three attributes mentioned above, 3560 with two attributes, 1420 with four of these attributes, 333 with just one attribute, 166 with five attributes, 11 with six attributes, and eight punks with no attributes at all.

Does the Punk Background Mean Anything?

Yes, it does!

The punks on the blue background have no bids and are not for sale. Punks with a red background are available for purchase, while punks with purple background are auctionable and have an active bid on them. Punks in the green background are wrapped punks sold on different NFT marketplaces.

You can join the Discord chat for live announcements related to the sale and purchase of CryptoPunks, which also has a bot announcing all sales, offers, and bids in real-time.

Learn a Bit About the Statistics

The total lifetime sales volume for Cryptopunks as of March 2022 is $2 Billion, whereas $75.24 million were spent in February 2022. The lowest price of an available punk as of April 2022 is 68 ETH, or approximately US $236,636.60. The highest sale of CryptoPunk in Feb 2022 was that of an alien punk with a blue hat costing $23.7 million.

A person can buy more than one punk, too; the maximum number of punks owned by a single owner as of date is around 400.

How to Buy a Punk

You can check the profile page of each punk on the Larva Labs website to see details on their attributes. You can check the current market status of the punk to see who owns it, if it is on sale, and the owner’s expected price. If current bids are going on the punk, you can check it from the profile page.

The complete transaction history of the punk can be viewed on this page.

Once you decide on which punk to buy, you can follow the following steps to buy a punk:

  • Download a Web-3 wallet such as Metamask
  • Buy Ether from exchanges such as Coinbase
  • Install the wallet plugin on the Metamask website, and you will find options to bid, sell, and buy punks.

Remember, you should have wrapped versions to sell them on third-party marketplaces. For details on how to wrap your CryptoPunks, you can visit here. There are no fees charged on CryptoPunk transactions except for the gas fees charged on every transaction on the Ethereum Blockchain.

Do You Wish to Create your Own CryptoPunk?

The original collection of CryptoPunks is fixed and cannot be minted. 

However, some take to creating “clone” CryptoPunks through any marketplaces that allow creating your own NFTs. All you need is to have the required amount of Ethereum tokens in your wallet.

However, these “clone” punks are essentially worthless, and provably so since the ownership of the authentic punks can be verified on the blockchain.

About the Team

The project is the brainchild of John Watkinson and Matt Hall, co-founders of a creative technology company called Larva Labs. Larva Labs is also behind other popular Blockchain projects: Meebits, an NFT collection of 3D characters, and Autoglyphs, a generative art form.

Besides these, they are also involved in Web and Mobile technology. The only web project from Larva Labs was done with Google and was called Github Data Visualization using Flutter Web. Flutter is a development framework aimed to change the app development process. 

The mobile projects from the team include:

  • Road Trip, an endless driving game
  • Boo, an android app for face detection and animation
  • AppChat, a chatroom for the Android apps
  • FlowHome, an Android launcher that organizes social network notifications and system notifications creatively on the phone
  • BreathPacer, a breathing trainer app for iPhone with sound and animations
  • Androidify, personalizing the Android logo into self or friends’ avatars, etc. 

Final Thoughts: What’s the Latest on CryptoPunks?

US-based Yuga Labs acquired the intellectual property rights of CryptoPunks and Meebits in March 2022. They plan to give commercial rights to both communities. Until now, punk owners could only reproduce, transmit, distribute, and display their punk images. Now, they might be able to modify and sell third-party products with them.  

Yuga Labs is the creator of another popular NFT collection called Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) and the associated collection Mutant Apes Yacht Club (MAYC), launched in 2021. These collections are unique in that they gave full IP rights to the owners. 

Yuga Labs immediately granted all CryptoPunks holders full commercial rights to their Punks.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs): The Complete Guide

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are blockchain-based tokens representing unique digital items such as digital art, collectibles, video game items, domain names, and more. 

The concept of NFTs is somewhat polarizing: one end of the spectrum raves about the creation of a financial infrastructure to trade and collect digital assets, and the other tends to view the value of NFTs and digital assets as dubious compared to their tangible real-world counterparts. 

Much of the static in the antagonist argument comes from a misunderstanding of how valuable the digital economy has grown to be. Understandably, the notion that completely digital items are being sold for thousands to millions of dollars sounds preposterous to a community used to buying physical art and trading cards. 

Epic Games, the creator of the popular video game Fortnite, sold $2.4 billion worth of costumes in 2018. Now, if the average person doesn’t know what Fortnite is, let alone why people are buying costumes for their character on it, they may be ideological odds with NFTs. 

Fortnite is a great example because, although none of the costumes or items are blockchain-based NFTs, it provides a great perspective of market value for purely digital assets. However, since those costumes aren’t NFTs, their value is entirely limited to existing within the NFT ecosystem. If one wants to buy a Fortnite skin (costume) from someone, they would have to go to a marketplace like eBay, pay money through the platform, and trust that the seller doesn’t scam them or that eBay is a fair intermediary if a dispute arises. 

Fortnite skins on eBay

NFT technology allows the owners of NFT-based digital assets to transact peer-to-peer and seamlessly trade NFTs for cryptocurrency. 

The benefits of the technology, however, don’t stop there. NFTs have enabled a deep variety of use-cases, from digital trading cards to video games to the representation of assets in the real world. 

Welcome to the complete guide on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). This article isn’t investment advice. NFTs and all digital assets have very volatile prices and can be risky to own. 

What is “Fungibility”

Fungible (adjective): an item that can replace or be replaced by another identical item. Fungible items are mutually interchangeable.

For example, Bitcoin is a “fungible” asset because 1 BTC will always equal 1 BTC. A $20 bill is valued the same as another $20 bill, regardless of its serial number. You can replace a $20 bill with another $20 bill and still be completely whole. 

A non-fungible token is a representation of a digital asset that is unlike other assets. An NBA Top Shot highlight with a serial number of 1/1000 has a different value of the same highlight but with a serial number of, let’s say, 893/1000. 

Note: if you’re unfamiliar with NBA Top Shot, check out our guide. A “serial number” basically refers to the order assigned to each NFT moment. If there are 1000 “prints” of a moment, the serial number for an individual number will be X/1000.

Fungibility is a relative concept that tends to reflect on the market value of an item. For example, some assets are semi-fungible within a class. Two parties can swap tickets for NBA Finals nose-bleed seats without too sharp a change in value, but they can’t be swapped for courtside seats. 

NFTs and Digital Assets: A Dynamic Duo

Non-fungible assets precede the invention and popularization of the blockchain; domain names, social media handles, tickets to events, and in-game items are all examples of non-fungible digital assets. 

Traditional assets generally lack the ability to sell or trade outside of a particular ecosystem. For example, the popular MMORPG Runescape has an in-game economy with some rare items, such as Party Hats, attracting upwards of $5,000 in USD. However, trading this asset requires an enormous amount of trust between two parties, or the use of a third-party “escrow” intermediary. 

screenshot by Pavel Sorkin 04/feb/2020 from https://www.playerauctions.com/runescape-items/

The blockchain provides a “coordination layer” for digital assets. With blockchain-based assets, users get full ownership and management permission over their property. 

A blockchain allows developers to build and collaborate with common and reusable standards, allowing them to specify ownership criteria, transferability, and access. This is comparable to other facets of the digital space, such as PNG or JPEG image file formats, or HTML & CSS formats for displaying visual content on a website. 

In less techy words, think of the blockchain as the concrete foundation and plumbing for a house structure, and developers as the builders. 

The NFT token standard, introduced in late-2017, essentially dictates how digital assets can leverage a blockchain, provided they meet the standard criteria set out by the developers. 

NFTs standardized the trading, interoperability, liquidity, and ability to prove proprietorship across all digital asset classes. 

Since NFTs are interoperable, meaning they can exist in the same ecosystem together (unlike, let’s say, digital plane tickets and a RuneScape party hat), they can also be traded in open marketplaces.  

For the first time in digital history, people can list their digital assets in global 24-7 open marketplaces, creating liquidity. Think of NFTs as an evolution from a primitive inefficient bartering ecosystem to an eBay-like marketplace. 

However, unlike eBay, many of these marketplaces are completely decentralized. There is no need for escrow, and since the blockchain can automatically prove the legitimacy and ownership of an item, it’s almost impossible to scam or be scammed. 

The first NFT token standard,  ERC721, was launched by Dapper Labs in CryptoKitties. The ERC721 standard maps unique identifiers to address; these identifiers correspond to single assets. It also allows for a permission means of transferring those assets using the transferFrom method.

ERC-20 vs ERC-721 via ERC721.org

Another NFT token standard, ERC1155, was launched by Enjin, which brings the concept of semi-fungibility to the blockchain world. ERC1155 IDs can represent classes of assets, rather than single individual assets. 

The ERC-998 standard hasn’t been used much, but is still worth mentioning; it allows for a way for people to own both non-fungible and fungible assets.

To dive further into the technicalities of NFTs, we recommend browsing through popular NFT marketplace OpenSea

Common NFT Questions (and Answers!)

What’s stopping an NFT creator from just making more of the same NFT?

Through smart contracts, another innovation is made possible by the blockchain; developers can create “hard caps” on the supply of NFTs. If a smart contract says there will only be 10 of an asset, there is no way to reverse it. Further, these smart contracts can prevent NFTs from being modified after they have been released. 

In practice, a developer can specify that only 10 copies of a “rare” item can ever be created, while keeping the supply of common items infinite. 

What was the first NFT?

CryptoKitties launched in November 2017 and was an enormous driver of attention into the NFT and digital collectible ecosystem, but it was preceded by a few notable projects. 

Launched in June 2017, CryptoPunks by Larva Labs was the first NFT experiment on Ethereum: 10,000 unique collectible punks with unique characteristics were sold. These punks could be used with non-custodial wallets like MetaMask, making it easier for the average crypto-savvy individual to get involved with NFTs. 

CryptoPunks

Since there are only 10,000 collectible punks without any further creations, CryptoPunks are a glance at the role scarcity plays with digital collectibles. Some CryptoPunks have sold for over $5,000,000.

Prior to 2017, early NFTs include Rare Pepes (built on the Bitcoin counterparty system) and colored coins (on the Bitcoin network.) 

Where Can I Make NFTs?

A handful of NFT minting platforms do a great job at bridging the world of creatives with that of the blockchain. 

Popular platforms include OpenSea, Digital Art Chain (mint any digital image into an NFT), Marble Cards (create unique digital cards), Mintbase, Mintable, Kred platform (create business cards, coupons, and collectibles), Rarible, and Cargo.

What are the Most Exciting Uses of NFTs?

Traditional IP owners have jumped into the NFT space to better connect with their audiences and monetize their products. For example, there is MLB Crypto (on-chain baseball game for the MLB), F1DeltaTime (Formula 1 racing game on the blockchain),  CryptoSpaceCommanders (StarTrek ships inside the Lucid Sight game), Stryking and Sorare (soccer trading cards), and NBA Top Shot (NBA trading card NFTs).

Entire virtual worlds are being built on the blockchain, where NFTs represent characters and items. Decentraland, for example, is a virtual reality metaverse. Enjin has a “multiverse” platform. 

Naming services (think “.com” domain names on the blockchain) are also trendy. Unstoppable Domains, built initially on the Zilliqa blockchain released .crypto domains, each of which is an ERC721 asset. The Ethereum Name Service is also worth mentioning. 

Final Thoughts: Why are NFTs Valuable?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. NFTs have a market value because the market deems them so. 

However, beyond the pricing of an average NFT asset, the NFT technology itself is an enormous evolution in collecting and owning property, whether digital or not. 

Beyond the already great value proposition of utility, liquidity, and provenance, NFTs are based on decentralized technology. They can accomplish peer-to-peer and prove true, unrestricted ownership of a digital asset while also achieving centralized organizations’ primary value (trust, escrow, etc.).

Top 6 Types of Digital Art in 2021

Digital art is defined as artwork that utilizes digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process

Although the lines blur between digital art and other types of experiential art, for the sake of this guide, we’ll be regarding digital art as anything that primarily lives in the digital realm. 

If you’re reading this article, you may be wondering how digital art is different from “crypto” art. The technology of crypto art cuts through any latent subjectivity surrounding digital art. 

Crypto art utilizes the blockchain as a means to acknowledge and authenticate ownership, prove the propriety of a specific art  piece, as well as to facilitate the instantaneous transactions between buyers and sellers. It largely accomplishes this through the use of NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens; these blockchain tokens represent unique, one-of-a-kind assets. 

The following article will explore the top 6 types of digital art, but it comes with a caveat– “top” is merely a handy way to categorize what excites us about the digital and crypto art industry in 2021. 

We acknowledge beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and our opinions below aren’t meant to “rank” artists against one another. If our writing here can inspire other artists around the world to explore creating art on the blockchain, we’d call this one a success. 

Let’s get into the best types of digital art in 2021. 

1. Everydays: the First 5000 Days

Charleston, South Carolina artist Beeple’s ‘The First 5,000 Days’ crypto art piece shocked the world, selling for a record $69,346,250 on March 11, 2021. 

The piece is a collage of artist Mike Winkelmann’s daily releases since he challenged himself to make a picture from start to finish every day starting on May 1st, 2007. His digital designs portray dark, comical phantasmagoric worlds, often using pop culture figures as focal points and references. Many pieces make some subtle, or not-so-subtle, rather, political or social commentary. 

Although the lofty price tag has been a controversial subject for a good majority of 2021, and for good reason, we view Everydays: the First 5000 Days as a testament to Winkelmann’s commitment to his creative journey. It’s also a reflection of his early advocacy of blockchain technology.

2. Nyan Cat

Nyan Cat sold on February 19th, 2021 for 300 ETH, which was worth about $580,000 at the time of the sale.  

Artist Chris Torres created Nyan Cat about a decade ago, publishing a video of the poptart-body flying cat in April 2011. The video grew to over 185 million views, becoming a viral sensation. 

In February 2021, a 1/1 NFT of Nyan Cat sold in an exciting auction with three bidders competing down to the last few minutes.

Nyan Cat makes our list because its sale will pave the way for future creators of viral sensations to directly interact with their audience, rather than having a third-party intermediary platform, YouTube in this case, determine the engagement and monetization.  

3. CryptoPunks

CryptoPunks

CryptoPunks are early blockchain-based collectibles that regularly attract price tags from between a few thousand to topping over $7.5 million. 

There are 10,000 CryptoPunks, each with uniquely generated characteristics. Each is one-of-a-kind, and can only be owned by a single owner on the Ethereum blockchain. When they first launched, anyone with an Ethereum wallet could claim one for free (all were claimed very quickly.)

We like these 8-bit digital portraits are the closest we have to cryptocurrency antiques– they were the first “NFT” on Ethereum, and were an inspiration for the NFT ERC-721 token standard. 

4. Pascal Boyart’s Murals (and NFTs)

Inspired by an early 19th-century painting by Eugène Delacroix called La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty leading the people), a Parisian street artist Pascal Boyart painted a mural homage, but with one interesting spin. 

NFTs of Boyart's mural
NFTs of Boyart’s mural

The mural contains $1,000 of BTC that can be claimed, provided visitors can crack the code the Boyart’s puzzle; the bitcoin has yet to be claimed.

Boyart also began selling NFTs of the mural’s digital version. The pieces are selling for 15 ETH+, or about $32,000 a pop. 

We like Boyart’s murals because they bridge the real and digital world in such a unique way; for example, he frequently adds a QR code for donations in BTC, and has generated thousands of dollars for his work by admiring passers-by. 

5. Hashmask #9939 sex

Hashmasks are unique because they’re the product of a community, rather than a product made to be sold to a specific community. There are 16,000 unique pieces, created by over 70 artists. 

The Hashmask initiative belongs to the Zurich-based Suum Cuique Labs, and the Hashmask creators are anonymous. 

Hashmask #9939 sold for 420 ETH, or about $840,000. 

“We are the exact target audience. We just build what we would like. We didn’t have to do any analysis on people’s preferences because it’s just us,” said one of the anonymous founders. “We hang in the same Discords.”

We like Hashmasks because they demonstrate the efficacy of creative anonymity on the blockchain, as well as the mainstream success that comes about when cultivating a unique relationship with an audience. Being the decentralized world the cryptocurrency industry is, this is particularly important. 

6. THE COMPLETE MF COLLECTION

Beeple again, this time with THE COMPLETE MF COLLECTION, a 1/1 collection of all of Beeple’s artwork in video format. 

This NFT sale is awesome because it actually comes with a physical, interface-free, always-on, physical artifact that constantly streams the NFT. The device comes with a signed, numbered titanium backplate with, according to the description, hidden authentication markers. 

It also comes with an “Authentic Beeple hair sample*,” which the creator further qualifies by saying “totes promise it’s not pubes.”

THE COMPLETE MF COLLECTION sold for $777,777.77 on Nifty Gateway

We love this one because it not only broadens the category of “digital art” to film, but it comes with a physical, presentable object that makes for a visually stimulating discussion piece.  

Final Thoughts: Digital Art History is Being Written

With Bitcoin’s 500% growth in price over a few months between 2020 and 2021, a newly minted batch of affluent cryptocurrency millionaires has entered the art collector space. 

The Internet’s newest millionaires and billionaires are showing a warmness to something they’re uniquely familiar with– value stored on the blockchain. 

For one, NFTs don’t come with the trappings and concerns of owning physical art pieces, like security costs, transportation, and physical deterioration. While NFTs do come with their unique set of risks (and digital deterioration, or “bit rot” is still a real thing), they provide an ownership and authentication framework like never before. 

Crypto art backed by NFTs already has some significant success stories, with CryptoPunks, Beeple, and Hashmask as strong examples in their own right. 

Our list of the top digital art is by no means exhaustive, and that’s so motivating to us as creators. There are already dozens of examples of NFT-backed music, videos, and trading card games selling for millions of dollars; the shiny selling prices are less important than the enthusiasm and democracy of investment created in the new era of art.