Someone bought a CryptoPunk for $16M

With bitcoin nearing its all-time high, eye-watering NFT sales appear to be cropping back up. A CryptoPunk just sold for 4,500 ether, worth over $16 million at current prices.

That’s the second largest sale ever for the blue-chip NFT collection, trailing only a $23.7 million CryptoPunk purchase made in Feb. 2022.

CryptoPunk 3100, the one that sold Monday morning, sold for $2,127 in 2017 before changing hands again for $7.58 million in 2021.

Read more: Got your eye on a CryptoPunk? It might be time to buy one

There are 10,000 unique CryptoPunks. Each punk has randomly generated attributes, like differing glasses or hairstyles. Punk 3100 is one of nine so-called alien punks that have blueish skin. The rareness of this attribute has made alien punks the most sought-after CryptoPunks.

Two other alien punks are currently on sale for $17.8 and $19.6 million.

CryptoPunks were minted in 2017 by Larva Labs, which then sold the intellectual property to Yuga Labs, developer of the Bored Apes NFT collection, in 2022.

Many crypto X users responded to the purchase of CryptoPunk 3100 as a sign that the “bull market” has returned.

Read more: Yuga Labs’ intensifying IP takedowns spur CryptoPunk backlash

At the time of writing, the NFT collection currently has a 24-hour trading volume of $17.16 million and a market cap of 570,000 ETH (~$2.03 billion), making it the most popular NFT collection today.

Other popular NFT collections, like Bored Ape Yacht Club and Pudgy Penguins, have a market cap of 192,500 ETH ($683 million) and 143,097 ETH ($507 million), respectively.

CryptoPunk 3100 is not the most expensive NFT to have been sold to date. During the NFT craze between 2021 and 2022, an NFT piece called “the Merge” by Pak sold for $91.8 million , making it one of the most expensive pieces sold to date.

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