Cryptopunk NFT Sold for Almost $12 Million in Sotheby's Auction

A Cryptopunk NFT was recently sold for $11.8 million during an auction organized by Sotheby’s. The sale, which also featured works of other artists, was organized virtually. Sotheby’s anticipates strong demand for this kind of digital good in the future, even as NFT fever has somewhat subsided in recent weeks.

Cryptopunk NFT Sold for Almost $12 Million

Sotheby’s, a leading art and luxury auction house, announced yesterday the sale of a Cryptopunk NFT for almost $12 million. The auction, titled “Natively Digital,” presented a group of curated works in the form of NFTs. While the feature of the auction was the Cryptopunk NFT, it also featured 27 other digital artworks.

The Cryptopunk NFTs are the very first series of NFTs minted on the Ethereum network by Larva Labs back in 2017. While they were created and distributed for free at that time, they are now highly valued for their origin. There are 10,000 Cryptopunks in total, but the one auctioned was especially strange.

Dubbed by some as the “Covid Alien” Cryptopunk, the NFT avatar depicts a pale green-skinned character donning an orange beanie and a mask. This made it especially desired compared to other Cryptopunks that have more conventional traits. Shalom Meckenzie, a shareholder of fantasy sports betting site Draftkings, won the auction for the asset.

According to Sotheby’s, this sale marks an auction record for a single Cryptopunk. Other tokens in the sale also reached high prices at the auction. Kevin McCoy’s Quantum sold for almost $1.5 million, and Robert Alice’s iNFT sold for almost $500K.

NFT Bubble Popped

While the NFT craze surged just some months ago, it has subsided recently. While the Sotheby’s auction shows there is still a real interest in digital artwork, it seems this interest has migrated to real artists and established collectibles. According to Protos, the sales of NFT’s are down 90% since their biggest numbers posted last May. This means the occasional NFT cash grab project is dying and could mean that the ecosystem around NFT’s is maturing.

However important this NFT sale might seem, it pales in comparison to the amount of money Beeple got for an NFT last March. The artist managed to get $69 million for a work titled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days.” The NFT shows his first 5000 artworks from his “Everydays“ project, where he vowed to produce some kind of artwork every day.