What Are Crypto Punk NFTs and How Did Christie’s Auction House Get Involved

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Welcome to the New To Crypto podcast designed to guide you through the crypto landscape with pinpoint accuracy created for the new and intermediate crypto investor. Join your host Crypto Travels Michael as he takes you through the different facets of getting started and succeeding in your crypto journey. New to crypto podcast brings you new episodes daily Monday through Friday with surprise bonus episodes sometimes on the weekend. Let me ask you, are you new to crypto don’t know where to start? Are you more experienced but have questions? Then you’re in the right place. This podcast is designed for you, coming at you from the training center in the lifestyle design studio. Here’s your host Crypto Travels Michael.

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Welcome to today’s show. Let me ask you a question. How can 24 by 24, eight-bit style pixel art images sell for millions of dollars? And how can one sell for $11.8 million? Well, stay tuned because this episode is all about Crypto Punks. And it’s going to answer your questions. So let’s dive into today’s episode. What are Crypto Punk NFT’s? And how did Christie’s Auction House get involved? Crypto punks are 10,000 unique collectible characters with proof of ownership on the Ethereum blockchain. Crypto Punks are one of the earliest examples of non-fungible tokens or NFT’s and became the inspiration for the ERC 721 standard that powers most digital art and collectibles. According to the Crypto Punks website, larvalabs.com. 

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The Crypto punks are 10,000 uniquely generated characters. No two are exactly alike. And each one of them can be owned by a single person on the Ethereum blockchain. Crypto Punk started out about three years ago by larvalabs. The founders are Matt Hall, and John Watkinson, who are software developers. LarvaLabs is a New York-based software company, and the two came up with Crypto Punks. And they had a question in the very beginning, could a few lines of code translate to a feeling of meaningful ownership? Now several years later, in many circles, it’s considered that their project is regarded as the beginning of today’s crypto art movement. You should know that Crypto Punks began as an experiment. Originally, they could be claimed for free by anyone with an Ethereum wallet. But all 10,000 of them were quickly claimed. You should know that now. The lowest price for any Crypto Punk currently for sale is 103.7 ETH or approximately $368,000. Based on today’s market on March 11, 2021, Crypto Punk number 3100 sold for 4200 ETH or $7.58 million at the time, in today’s ETH value with the same exact ETH That’s well over $14 million. Also, on March 11, 2021, Crypto Punk 7804 sold for 4200 ETH or $7.5 million. Also, other notable Crypto Punks, which sold for millions include 5217, which sold for 20 250 ETH, or $5.45 million, and number 80 857 sold for 2000 eath or $6.63 million. This was because the price of ETH was greater when the purchase was made in September 11, 2021.

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Actually, there are at least 10 Crypto Punks, which have sold for millions of dollars. As I mentioned before, currently the floor price or the lowest price for a Crypto Punk is $68,500. This means that it’s the lowest current price for any Crypto Punk. So let me ask you, what is a Crypto Punk? Well, the Crypto Punks are 24 by 24-pixel art images generated with an algorithm most are punky-looking guys and girls. But there are a few rare types of mixed-in apes, zombies, and even the odd alien. Every Punk has their own profile page that shows their attributes, as well as their ownership for-sale status. We have written code that lives on the blockchain that anyone can use to buy and sell Punks with anyone else in the world. This is from their site. By the way, an interesting aspect of this system is that we no longer have any control over the code running Crypto Punks. Once we released it onto the blockchain, it became permanently embedded there, and can no longer be modified by anyone. This is scary for us as developers, because we worry about bugs. But it’s also a very powerful feature of the system. It allows a user to 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.

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I like how decrypt words the following what’s so special about them. One of the biggest drivers for demand for Crypto Punks is that they’re one of the oldest NFT projects around and the first set of randomly generated profile pictures to really click with the crypto community. They’ve inspired a rising tide of profile picture NFT sets from board a yacht club to punchy penguins. So pudgy penguins is another really popular one as well. I did an episode on board a yacht club, so if you haven’t heard it, definitely check that one out, each of which only reinforces the influence and legacy of the source project. Crypto Punks have some high profile owners too, such as rapper Jay Z and the influencer and investor Gary Vaynerchuk. Did you know The most expensive Crypto Punks sold to date went for $11.8 million worth of ETH in June of 2021 in a southern visa auction to shallow McKinsey, the largest shareholder of DraftKings and listen to this little nit bit, little chunk right here. I really wanted this particular Crypto Punk Mackenzie told decrypt. It is part of an alien collection, which is the rarest of the Punks, and the only alien that has a mask. I thought it was symbolic of COVID and the popularization of NF t’s the following is taken from the auction house Christie’s website. There are 6039 Male Punks. There’s 30 840 Female Punks, a total of 696 were hot lipstick, while 303 have mutton chops. There are 286 Punks with 3d glasses, 128 rosy-cheeked Punks. 94 Punks with pigtails 78 punks with buck teeth, and 44 beanie-wearing Punks. They’re also eight Punks with no distinctive features at all, sometimes referred to as Genesis Punks, and only one with seven attributes. Crypto Punk 8348 is a big bearded buck tooth, cigarette smoking punk with an earring animal wearing classic shades and a top hat. Here’s a side note about Crypto Punks. By the way, they were inspired by the London Punk scene. So how did Christie’s get involved with Crypto Punks. So this was taken from their site. Now for the first time, a special sample of that groundbreaking work will be offered at a traditional auction house. A single lot of nine Punks, courtesy of larvalabs, the project’s creators and pioneers will appear in Christie’s 21st century evening sale on May 11 in New York. These Crypto Punks are the alpha and omega of the crypto art movement, explains Noah Davis, a specialist in post war and contemporary art at Christie’s New York. This is a historic sell. So it’s obvious that the founders with lavalabs got involved with Christie’s so I hope today’s episode has been informative for you. I trust that it has provided a clearer picture for you as to what CryptoPunks are. If you like today’s episode, definitely Like and subscribe to the podcast. I’m working hard and bringing valuable content that will help you navigate the crypto landscape. So definitely chime in here tomorrow, and I’ll catch you then. Until then, I’m out.

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