CryptoPunks NFT Worth $1.5 Million Just Sold for $23,000—Here's How
"Heist" or just a brilliant play? CryptoPunk #2386 sold for a fraction of its market value thanks to a smart contract and an unexpected move.
The immutable nature of the blockchain was put in stark relief on Wednesday when CryptoPunk #2386, which is valued around 600 ETH (about $1.5 million), was acquired for a fraction of that price at 10 ETH (or just over $23,000)—after being locked up and overlooked thanks to a now-defunct website.
CryptoPunks are some of the most valuable Ethereum NFTs around, even years after the market boom. This particular Punk was especially prized, as out of the total collection of 10,000 profile pics, it was one of only 24 that depicted an ape—an animal beloved across the NFT space. One of these rare variants just sold for nearly $1.5 million last week, making it the last comparable sale.
Especially during the height of the NFT market, some CryptoPunks were so valuable that they were sometimes fractionalized—segmented, or sharded, into smaller shares—to allow many more investors to take partial ownership of one.
In the case of Punk #2386, its owner had fractionalized it through a short-lived website called Niftex. The NFT itself was locked in escrow on the Ethereum blockchain, and ownership rights were split into 10,000 ERC-20 tokens in 2020. Like other fractionalized NFTs, investors could buy and sell individual shards—but that became difficult to do after Niftex shuttered.
According to pseudonymous smart contract developer @0xquit on Twitter (aka X), Punk #2386 ultimately had 257 fractional holders. With the Niftex platform gone, however, the main way to trade fractional NFTs essentially left them in limbo.
Someone had their eye on Punk #2386, however, and because the smart contract remained valid on the blockchain, they were able to trigger a buyout feature and ultimately take ownership of the NFT for a fraction of its current value.
