Crypto collectibles are digital media that’s authenticated by the blockchain, typically verified on Ethereum’s network. By tokenizing digital media, you’re able to distinguish between an original file and a copy of the original. NFTs create digital scarcity, making it possible to trade digital collectibles that have a finite supply.
Unlike traditional collectibles, however, the creators of Cryptopunks can’t mint any new pieces, so the supply will never exceed 10,000 NFTs. Created in 2017, CryptoPunks were among the 1st NFT collectibles minted on Ethereum’s blockchain. These collectibles are pixelated characters, and most are human, but some Cryptopunks are aliens, apes and zombies. Although each CryptoPunk is unique, non-human CryptoPunks sell for much more than normal CryptoPunks due to their scarcity. See the marketplace instructions below to acquire your very own punk.
Digital collectibles are fun to collect, but their prices are highly speculative and offer little intrinsic value. However, if demand keeps rising for NFTs, you can expect the prices for these collectibles to rise too. There are only 10,000 Cryptopunks ever made, and each punk is different. This scarceness attracts collectors who think Cryptopunks will continue to be a popular digital collectible. Hardware wallets are physical devices that store your cryptocurrency and NFTs offline, and they’re the most secure way to store your digital collectibles.
Origins of CryptoPunks
This is scary for us as developers because we worry about bugs, but it is also a very powerful feature of the system. It allows a user verify that there are indeed only 10,000 punks, check that we can’t steal them from you, and basically make sure that everything we told you about the code is true. You have ETH in the Cryptopunks contract — click here to withdraw to your wallet. Now you’ve got your very own digital wallet, and a chunk of ETH sitting pretty. Once inside, you can click on Account Details to retrieve your wallet’s address.
Read on to find out how to do this; if you already have a Metamask wallet, you can skip this section. All 10,000 CryptoPunks were minted into NFTs and they’re now stored on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing owners to trade them. According to Larva Labs, the cheapest CryptoPunk you can get costs 34 ETH, which is a whopping $93,624 as of this writing. CryptoPunks are arguably the trailblazers of the non-fungible token movement.
Some great platforms that offer Ether are Coinbase, eToro and Gemini. Once you own enough Ether to purchase your punk, you’ll need to transfer your funds to an Ethereum wallet. Here you can see all Cryptopunks currently up for sale in the secondary market. You have the choice of buying these at their listed prices right away, or placing a bid any of the 10,000 punks. But in order to play on the Ethereum blockchain, you need to move that money into a digital wallet. That’s when you become the true owner and operator of your own cryptocurrency, and that is what leads to the many exciting new freedoms that this world brings about.
To use CryptoPunks which is based on the Ethereum blockchain, you’re going to need an Ethereum wallet address. One of the most used Ethereum wallets is MetaMask wallet extension. When CryptoPunks first started, the 10,000 strong punks were all free for anyone to snag and make their own. Now they are being traded and auctioned off by their owners, creating a limited edition pixelated art.
The lowest price punk currently for sale is 49.99 ETH ($90,739.85 USD).
Only 10,000 were released and each one is completely unique. Only 9 alien punks were generated and, as the rarest, they usually are valued higher. At the time of this writing, the lowest current price for an available punk is 99 ETH . The most expensive Cryptopunk was $11.7 million , sold in a Sotheby’s auction in June 2021.
If you want to hold your NFTs safely, you should keep them in an Ethereum wallet. The 2 main types of Ethereum wallets are hardware and software wallets. Software wallets, like Coinbase Wallet and Metamask, are computer programs that store your cryptocurrency and NFTs. Cryptopunks are algorithmically generated characters in a 24×24 pixel art frame. Similarly to art and trading cards, these Cryptopunks are collectible and scarce.
We have no control over the contract governing this market, and have no access to any additional data beyond what the blockchain provides. In fact anyone else could write a web front end for it. In March 2022, Yuga Labs — the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club — acquired both CryptoPunks and Meebits. With this acquisition, Yuga Labs says they aim to foster a “community of builders” creating derivative works around the two projects. To accomplish this, as they’ve done with their own BAYC collection, Yuga Labs stated that they will transfer IP, commercial, and exclusive licensing rights to the individual NFT holders. This will enable CryptoPunks and Meebits owners to create artwork and products based on their NFTs the same way BAYC owners have.
Transfer Ethereum to your MetaMask
Once you hit Confirm, the transaction will begin and — depending how much gas you paid — will take a couple to more than a couple of minutes to go through. Click Connect, and you are now able to buy a punk with your wallet. To setup your Metamask, first download and install it to your device.
How to buy a CryptoPunks NFT — the easiest way to get a unique, 8-bit avatar
Mark Cuban called Cryptopunks “the rookie card of NFTs”. Find the “For Sale” part and click to see all the CryptoPunks for sale. Learn the latest about Punks Legacy Project here and the novel IP rights granted to collectors here. Regardless of what happens, considering that the NFT community is so often looked down upon as a temporary fad, it seems very fitting that the mascot of the space is a Punk. If you have enough crypto in your wallet, you can buy one on the LarvaLabs website. The maximum number of traits that a single CryptoPunk can have is seven.
Once you transfer your funds to a digital wallet, you are no longer interfacing with the Ethereum blockchain through Coinbase. You yourself are interfacing with the blockchain, and that’s when things get really interesting. There are many different options when it comes to “onramps” into Ethereum — a fancy way of saying that you’re buying ETH and taking one step further into the Ethereum ecosystem. One of the easiest places to do this is on a popular cryptocurrency exchange called Coinbase. Cryptopunks are bought and sold in Ether , the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum Blockchain.
While it was not technically the first NFT project on Ethereum, it is one of the earliest, and it is undoubtedly the most influential. The CryptoPunks’ journey to non-fungible stardom is intertwined with the growth of the Ethereum blockchain. And the rise of multi-billion dollar projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club can be traced directly back to the CryptoPunk mold.
Rightly or wrongly, they are viewed as people who foresaw where NFTs were going and got in ahead of the curve. As a result, they are given the presumption of trust and status. In fact, a number of collectors have created entire personas, projects, communities, and brands around a single CryptoPunk NFT. CryptoPunks was created by Larva Labs, a two-person development team working on all sorts of projects from mobile games and utilities to web infrastructure to digital design and art. The team developed a pixelated character generator with inspiration from the London punk scene and cyberpunk films and novels.