Shameless Shilling: CryptoPunks

History

CryptoPunks was released by Larva Labs in June of 2017 as the first Ethereum-based NFT.  The Punks were free to claim, with collectors only having to pay for gas.  Claims were not random, and people were able to pick which Punks they wanted.

CryptoPunks was featured in an article on Mashable, which helped lead to initial minting ending quickly.  The project later became the inspiration for the ERC-721 standard for NFT’s and was the beginning of the modern CryptoArt movement.  

Community

As in all crypto projects, one of the things that makes CryptoPunks stand out, is the great community surrounding it.  Almost all of the biggest and most knowledgeable NFT collectors are part of the CryptoPunks community.  As far as liquidity goes, it is pretty liquid, for a NFT project, and a decent amount of Punks trade hands every day.  The project is also consistently towards the top of the volume list on NonFungible. 

One more interesting thing about the community is about how close and friendly it is.  Conversations often feel like you’re playing in a friendly game of poker with close friends at home, where there is friendly competition, but each person is happy for others when a good deal is made.  But it doesn’t stop there.  The discord chat should be a daily stop for any serious NFT collector, as members are always discussing all topics ranging not only from Punks themselves, but other new NFT projects that people might find interesting as well. 

Attributes

Although there are 10,000 Punks, each Punk’s rarity is predicated on the different attributes and character types.  All the Punks are human except for 9 Aliens, 24 Apes, and 88 Zombies.  To see a full list of attributes you can visit the Larva Labs attributes page to get a better idea of rarities of different attributes and combinations.  On this page you can also see the cheapest Punk for sale with the specific attribute you are looking for.

Marketplace

The marketplace has grown tremendously since its early days.  After initially being free to claim, with users only having to pay the cost of gas, lifetime volume has reached over $7.8 million, with $1 million of that coming just over the last 7 days.  The highest recorded sale was over $150,000 and it occurred just a few days ago.  Below is my thought process on the record purchase:

Buying a Punk is as simple as connecting your wallet to the Larva Labs website.  But all of the action and education happens in the discord chat.  One would find it very beneficial to login to the Discord channel to spend time there learning from members of the community before jumping head first into a buying spree.  Everyone is more than helpful, and does their best to educate new participants.

Why Punks Matter

Pablo Picasso.  Vincent Van Gogh.  Andy Warhol.  Claude Monet.  Jackson Pollack.

All these artists have one thing in common: they introduced the world to a new paradigm with their emergence into the art world.  This is one of the many reasons why their works are some of the most highly coveted on the planet.  Collectors will pay a premium for new and innovative pieces that would forever change what we call art.

Historically, all fine art was purely physical.  Even though digital art has existed for a few decades, the lack of provenance has really kept it from being a medium for fine art.  But with the advent of blockchain, this very big issue was finally presented with a solution.  But it wasn’t until 8 years after the genesis block of Bitcoin, that the first NFT was issued on Ethereum: CryptoPunks.

The historical significance is not lost on collectors.  The first of their kind, Punks are true digital antiques.  As has been shown by the masters of centuries past, it is the thought leaders that collectors choose to keep.  Artists that introduce the world to something new.  Although young, and in a burgeoning space, CryptoPunks are a project that has truly shifted the paradigm of the art world forever.