Rare ‘Alien’ CryptoPunk Breaks Highest Purchase Record At $23.7 Million

Last week, Sotheby’s announced it would be holding a single-lot sale for 104 CryptoPunks, believed to be worth between US$20 million and US$30 million in total.

While that may seem to be a substantial chunk of change, a rare “alien” Punk #5822—just one of nine—has broken the highest purchase record in the collection by going for 8,000 Ethereum, or US$23.7 million.

The digital asset was acquired by Deepak Thapliyal, the founder of blockchain infrastructure firm Chain, who tweeted a picture of the image with an alien emoji shortly after the sale.

According to Crypto Briefing, the previous record in the collection had been held by Punk #7523, another rare “alien” image, when it sold for US$11.8 million in June last year. 

The site noted even the capsule’s more common “ape” and “zombie” images have fetched millions of dollars in sales over the last several months. The cheapest of the lot still hit six-figures at 70 Ethereum, or over US$200,000.

As CryptoPunks, which was created in 2017, enters its fifth year, its virtual assets are still considered to be one of the most valuable non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the market, with only 10,000 in circulation. 

BeInCrypto reported that this purchase will join the list as the fourth largest NFT purchase in history so far, though Beeple’s US$69 million jpeg still holds the coveted top spot.  

Will we see another Punk go for even more in the near future? With the way NFTs have caught on in the mainstream, it wouldn’t be surprising if these virtual assets got even more valuable.

👽 pic.twitter.com/lQg6DzSttr

— Deepak.eth ⛓ (@dt_chain) February 12, 2022

[via Crypto Briefing and BeInCrypto, cover image via Deepak Thapliyal]