A Brief History of CryptoPunks | You Can Still Get One
In 2017, Matt Hall and John Watkinson, two Canadian developers, created one of the first NFT platforms called cryptopunks. According to a recent Christie’s article, this project is considered to be the beginning of the crypto art movement we have today.
“The CryptoPunks are the alpha and omega of the CryptoArt movement,’ explains Noah Davis, specialist in Post-War & Contemporary Art at Christie’s, New York. ‘This is a historic sale.”
(Referring to a traditional auction of 8 unique cryptopunks on May 11, 2021)
When Cryptopunks were initially created, blockchain technology was mostly associated with Bitcoin, the first generation crypto currency. However, Ethereum was highly adopted and unlike Bitcoin, offered the ability for developers to build anything.
Crypto punks started as 10,000 unique, punk like characters generated by an algorithm on the Ethereum blockchain. The first 9000 were given away for free by participating on the Ethereum blockchain, while the devs held the rest.
The Cryptopunks project gained traction in June 2017 after the release of a positive Mashable article titled “This Ethereum-Based Project Could Change How We Think About Digital Art”. According to that article, the first few transactions were from $1–34.
Cryptopunks gave people something to do on Ethereum. There is something to be said about the allure of collectibles. By the end of 2017 the value of Bitcoin and Ethereum increased by 1300%, and 8000% respectively. Consequently, so did the value of cryptopunks.
In January of 2018, the New York Times wrote an article titled, “Will Crypto Currencies be the Art Market’s Next Big Thing?” mentioning that “Coveted ‘punks’ are now selling for 10 Ether, or about $13,500 as of Wednesday, lifting the investment value of the founders’ retained 10 percent.”
This and sheer hype began to drive the prices to shocking levels.
Today, the top ranking characters are worth $7–10m while the cheapest go for around $30,000 on average.
Cryptopunks are a staple collectable item in crypto, and signify early adaptation to Ethereum blockchain.
As of May of 2021 Crypto Punks were released on the Binance blockchain, currently, punk #5534 can be bought for 20BNB or about $10,000.
A Solpunk is a cryptopunk for the Solana blockchain. Currently, you can buy a Solpunk for 3 $SOL or around $100. 7320 Solpunks are available for purchase.
The value of Solpunks will inevitably go up along with the price of $SOL and will be a symbol of early adaptation of the Solana blockchain.
