Cryptopunks See Over $1m Sales As NFT Whales Stay Active

Seven CryptoPunks NFTs sold for a combined $1.11 million over a 48-hour window, with two hoodie-trait variants alone accounting for more than $750,000 across separate trades. The activity points to continued appetite from high-conviction buyers even as the broader NFT market remains well below its 2021 peak.

Blue-Chip Demand Holds Firm

CryptoPunks has long occupied a category of its own in the NFT space. Launched in June 2017, CryptoPunks is a pioneering interactive art project on the Ethereum blockchain comprising 10,000 unique, 24×24 pixel characters — humans, apes, zombies, and aliens — algorithmically generated and permanently inscribed on-chain. The project helped shape the ERC-721 standard, the backbone of most NFTs today.

The collection's cultural standing has translated into sustained financial relevance. CryptoPunks holds the top position among NFT collections by value, with a floor price in the tens of thousands of dollars. In terms of historical sales and floor price stability for rare attributes, CryptoPunks remain the benchmark for value within the NFT market.

Rarer trait types continue to command the highest premiums. Alien and Ape variants — of which there are only 9 and 24 respectively — consistently fetch multi-million dollar prices due to extreme scarcity. The latest hoodie-variant trades suggest that even mid-tier rare traits are enough to attract serious bids well into six figures.

A Quieter Market With Active Whales

The NFT market has matured considerably since its 2021 peak, with value concentrating in a handful of proven collections. According to CoinGecko research, CryptoPunks holds over 30% market share among top NFT collections by market capitalisation — more than twice the dominance of any other single collection.

Ownership of the collection has also evolved. In 2022, Yuga Labs — the team behind Bored Ape Yacht Club — acquired the CryptoPunks intellectual property. In 2025, that IP passed to the digital art nonprofit Infinite Node Foundation, with the stated aim of long-term preservation of the collection and its community.

The $1.11 million in 48-hour sales may not signal a market-wide revival, but it reinforces the argument that a small tier of verified, historically significant NFTs retains a genuine collector base — one that continues to transact at meaningful price points regardless of wider sentiment.

Sources
Larva Labs — CryptoPunks Official
CoinGecko — CryptoPunks NFT Floor Price & Stats
Wikipedia — CryptoPunks