The most expensive CryptoPunk was just sold for a record $23.7 million in Ethereum.
On Saturday, CryptoPunk #5822 was purchased by Chain CEO Deepak Thapliyal for 8,000 ETH ($23,701,160.16), smashing the previous record held by DraftKings’ largest shareholder Shalom Meckenzie who purchased CryptoPunk #7523 for $11.8 million back in June 2021.
According to reports, Thapliyal purchased the NFT directly from CryptoPunks developer Larva Labs’ own online market place, leveraging the DeFi protocol Compound Finance to pay for the CryptoPunk.
“Thanks to Compound Finance, I am able to still [hold] ETH while buying this. Basically long’d ETH to punk-in,” his tweet said.
Compound Finance (COMP) is an autonomous algorithmic protocol that allows users to supply various crypto assets and start generating interest. Currently, there is close to $9 billion locked into its smart contracts, according to DeFi Pulse. The DeFi protocol allows for users to borrow against crypto positions such as ETH and borrow stablecoins, pegged to the U.S. dollar, with interest, to assist them with spending.
When funds are deposited, customers get the equivalent value of their deposit in cTokens. If they deposited ETH, cETH is received. Customers can then immediately borrow money against deposited funds without the need for credit checks. The funds deposited must exceed the amount borrowed so that there is enough collateral for the loan to be repaid.
Unlike traditional banks, Compound interest rates adjust automatically depending on supply and demand at any given time.
This CryptoPunk is out of this world
Unique to Thapliyal’s purchase is one of the nine rare “alien” avatars that are part of the 10,000 CryptoPunk collection.
Developed in 2017, CryptoPunks are highly considered to be one of the OG’s in today’s non-fungible tokens arena, with an overall supply of 10,000 24*24, 8-bit tokenized and pixelated art images. Indeed, its popularity of being used as social media profile pictures predates today’s growing popularity of using NFTs as online avatars.
Fourth highest NFT purchase in history
While this serves as the largest CryptoPunks NFT purchase in history, this also marks the fourth largest NFT purchase in history.
Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” still holds the record for being the most expensive NFT, selling for $69.3M last March.
Multi-disciplinary artist Pak’s NFT “Clock,” which sold for a shade under $54M, positioning it in second place.
Beeple’s “Human One” NFT sold for $29 million, putting it in third place.
Prior to Mackenzie’s 2021 purchase of CryptoPunk #7523, Larva Labs’ most significant sale came from the $10.26 million purchase of CryptoPunk #4156.
Data from Cryptoslam suggests that the CryptoPunks collection has been subject to more than $2 billion in secondary trading volume.
Recently, there has been widespread confusion among the CryptoPunk community surrounding its failed V1 CryptoPunks and a subsequent community-wrapped project to help keep it alive, ultimately delegitimizing the V2 CryptoPunks collection.
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