An anonymous investor, on March 4th, made a bid of over $16 million to purchase a rare NFT from the CryptoPunks collection, marking the second-largest transaction ever recorded for a CryptoPunk. An unidentified Ethereum user acquired CryptoPunk #3100 for 4,500 ETH, valued at $16.03 million at the time of sale. The user’s wallet was created just four days prior and was used solely to purchase this NFT.
The $16 Million Sale Makes Headlines
CryptoPunk #3100 stands out as one of the nine Alien Punks in the entire 10,000-piece CryptoPunks collection. Due to their rarity, Alien Punks have attracted some of the highest bids ever recorded for CryptoPunk NFTs. The most expensive CryptoPunk sold to date is #5822, another Alien Punk, which was purchased for approximately $24 million at the peak of the NFT market in early 2022.
The anonymous buyer of CryptoPunk #3100 had been attempting to purchase the coveted NFT for days. On February 29th, they offered 4,250 ETH, worth $14.78 million at the time, to the then-owner of the NFT. Apparently, this offer was not enough to secure the purchase; the individual withdrew their bid on March 1st and eventually presented their winning offer of 4,500 ETH today.
Bullish Signals in the NFT Market
Crypto users on Twitter are interpreting this dazzling purchase as a definitive sign of a returning bull market. The potential resurgence to the absurdly high levels of the 2021/2022 crypto bull run is signaled by the massive Bitcoin rally of the past week, which saw Bitcoin consistently gain thousands of dollars in value each day, fueling a frenzied mood. This momentum also pushed the price of Ethereum above $3,500 for the first time since early 2022.
CryptoPunk #3100, although the second most expensive NFT sold after another Alien, CryptoPunk #5822, still does not come close to the price tag of the most expensive single NFT ever sold, which is a work by digital artist Mike Beeple. The artist’s NFT piece was sold for $69.3 million at a Christie’s auction in March 2021.
First created in 2017 by Larva Labs and later acquired by the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club in 2022, CryptoPunks have been an influential collection that inspired the surge in NFT profile pictures. To date, the collection has amassed a trading volume of $2.75 billion, with prices currently starting above $200,000.
