Sotheby’s Cancels Cryptopunks NFT Auction After Consignor 'Decided to Hodl' Collectibles

On February 8, the multinational luxury auction company Sotheby’s announced the firm would be auctioning 104 Cryptopunk non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles, but before the event started Sotheby’s canceled the event. It seems “0x650d,” the owner of the Cryptopunks NFTs, decided to keep the assets that were estimated to fetch around $20 to $30 million at auction.

Cryptopunks Owner Decides to Keep 104 NFTs, Sotheby’s Forced to Cancel ‘Punk It’ Auction

The luxury auction house had to cancel an NFT auction dubbed “Punk It” on Wednesday after the consignor decided to back out. During the first week of February, Sotheby’s revealed it would be auctioning 104 Cryptopunks that were estimated to get around $20 to $30 million. The sale would be called “Punk It,” and the NFTs stemmed from the owner “0x650d,” an individual who purchased the 104 Cryptopunks in a single transaction by paying a miner a bribe of five ethereum (ETH) in July 2021.

Then on the day of the scheduled auction, Sotheby’s tweeted that after a discussion with the consignor 0x650d, the event was officially canceled. “Following discussions with the consignor, tonight’s Punk It sale has been withdrawn. Thank you to our panelists, guests, and viewers for joining us,” Sotheby’s said. Then 0x650d retweeted an older tweet and said that he decided to keep the stash of Cryptopunk NFTs. 0x650d said:

Nvm, decided to hodl.

NFT Supporter Says Canceled Auction ‘Made Everyone Look Stupid’

In another tweet, 0x650d shared a meme making fun of the situation with the luxury auction house Sotheby’s. Others didn’t think the meme was funny and 0x650d received criticism for pulling the auction away from Sotheby’s. “Bro you suck,” one individual wrote. “Stop acting like you rugged Sotheby’s. LMAO — You made everyone look stupid. Even the press here is laughing at us because of you… Stop hiding the guilt behind dumb ass memes.” Another individual agreed and said:

Well said @farokh. [The] sale would have been [a] big win for NFTs in general. Seems odd to just pull the auction at the eleventh hour. Obviously, something’s amiss we’re not being told.

Meanwhile, besides the memes 0x650d shared, the community does not know exactly why he decided to pull the Cryptopunks NFT sale. It’s quite possible that 0x650d’s stash became worth far less than he expected when the Cryptopunks NFT auction was first announced. Cryptocurrency market prices, including the values of non-fungible token digital collectibles, have dropped significantly in value against fiat currencies since the escalated geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine.

At the time of writing, metrics from dappradar.com indicate that 0x650d’s stash of NFTs are estimated to be worth $22.16 million. The value is a lot less than the wallet’s net worth when the auction was first announced. Currently, the 0x650d wallet owns approximately 136 NFTs from 18 different NFT collections. 0x650d’s Twitter account profile has an etherscan verification message that is signed and verified, proving that 0x650d is indeed the owner of the 0x650d ethereum address holding the 136 NFTs.