Crypto punks turned 5 years old on June 9th. Released during the market highs of 2017, John Watkinson and Matt Hall started Larva Labs, the think tank and concept creation point.
The project has come a long way from an all but failed launch with only a few sales to fast forward 5 years and it’s the 2nd biggest NFT project with $2.2 Billion in total all time volume and an average sticker price of 65 Eth which is around $140,000.
Ethereum was still new at the time and “smart contracts”, the technology that makes NFT’s possible, was a concept that no one had heard of or understood. A couple weeks after their launch Mashable wrote an article about crypto punks and Hall and Watkinson sold out almost immediately, one going for $3500 in eth. They kept 1000 crypto punks they saved in case it ever “became a thing.” Only about 4 years later one crypto punk known as “wise alien” sold for $7.5 Million in Eth. Another one known as “Covid Alien” sold for $11.5 Million in Eth.
Crypto punks has played probably the biggest role in NFT culture, it kicked off the NFT community and brought it to the celebrity spotlight.