Major Sale in the NFT Market
In a noteworthy transaction within the NFT ecosystem, a seller has parted with CryptoPunk #3100 for approximately $6 million, represented in Ethereum. However, this sale comes with a significant downside, as the seller faced a staggering $10 million loss on the asset. Notably, CryptoPunk #3100 is part of the highly coveted Alien Punks subset, with only nine pieces existing in the entire CryptoPunks collection of 10,000. This particular punk is distinguished as the sole example wearing a headband.
Details of the Transaction
The sale took place through a private transaction facilitated by the crypto art brokerage known as Fountain, wherein the digital asset exchanged hands for 4,000 ETH, valued at $6,076,840 based on current Ethereum rates. This marks a considerable decline for the seller, who acquired CryptoPunk #3100 in March 2024 for 4,500 ETH, equating to a value of around $16 million at that time—a transaction that ranked as the third-largest on-chain sale of any CryptoPunk NFT to date.
Factoring in the dip in Ethereum’s value since that initial purchase, the sale reflects a loss of 500 ETH, which, when translated into real financial terms, leads to an overall loss approaching $10 million due to Ethereum’s depreciation—by 57% over the past year, according to CoinGecko.
Market Impact and Rarity
Details surrounding the buyer and the identity of the wallets involved remain undisclosed; however, the purchasing wallet, freshly funded with 4,001 ETH labeled as “Coinbase Prime 2” on Ethereum block explorer Etherscan, has not engaged in further on-chain activities thus far.
Interestingly, this recent transaction puts CryptoPunk #3100 at the pinnacle of the sales charts for the CryptoPunks marketplace, being featured three times for previous sales totaling $7.58 million and $16.03 million respectively. This latest sale also constitutes the highest on-chain transaction for CryptoPunks since April 25, 2024, when Punk #7804, a different Alien variant, sold for $16.42 million—making it the second largest sale in the collection’s history.
Alien CryptoPunks are deemed the rarest of their kind within the collection, surpassing both Zombie and Ape Punks, whose available numbers stand at 88 and 24 respectively. Throughout its history, sales of Alien Punks have achieved the seven top sales records, with Punk #5822’s sale at $23.7 million in February 2022 holding the title for the most valuable Punk sold.
Market Trends and Future Outlook
Despite CryptoPunks retaining their status as the leading profile picture NFT collection, the economic outlook has been unfavorable for collectors, as reflected by a 44% drop in the collection’s floor price—this being the minimum price at which any asset can be listed, which currently sits at $64,727 according to NFT Price Floor data. Initially, when launched in 2017 by Larva Labs, these pieces were available for free. They peaked in value in November 2021 with floor prices exceeding $400,000 before the Intellectual Property rights were transferred to Yuga Labs, the creators behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, in 2022.
