Gerry Palmers Culture 05.12.2021 10:May AM EDT

CryptoPunks NFT Auction Banks $16 Million—But It's Not Christie's Biggest Sale

CryptoPunks NFT Auction Banks $16 Million—But It Is Not Christie's Biggest Sale — Nine CryptoPunks NFTs were auctioned off at Christie's for a total of over $16 million on Tuesday, marking a huge milestone in NFT sales. Photo : Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Famed New York-based auction house Christie's announced on Tuesday that nine CryptoPunks NFTs had been auctioned off for over $16 million, commemorating another huge milestone in NFT art sales.

CryptoPunks NFT Inspired by London Punk Movement

The recently sold NFTs show randomly created pixelated portraits from the collection of CryptoPunks co-creators Matt Hall and John Wilkinson, with distinctive features inspired by the London punk movement--including jewelry, sunglasses, and hairstyles, the Coin Telegraph noted.

Also Read: 'Disaster Girl' Meme NFT Sold $500,000 for Real!

CryptoPunks Auction Not the Biggest at Christie's

But while the over $16 million CryptoPunks NFT sale is huge, it is certainly not the biggest at Christie's, with the honor going to Beeple's $69 million sale of a digital print in March. In December last year, Beeple--whose real name is Mike Winkelmann--sold a collection of NFTs for $3.5 million. Just in April, Beeple had also resold a previously priced $66,666.66 for $6.6 million.

NFTs or non-fungible tokens are distinct files residing in a blockchain that authenticate the ownership of digital files, mainly of the visual arts, music and videos. Buyers would simply buy them as valuable assets they could resell at a later time, apart from the bragging rights, even if they get limited rights to display the work they purchased.

CryptoPunks NFTs Now Considered Collector's Items

CryptoPunks has been an early, pioneering entrant in the NFT bonanza with its works now considered as collector's items. The project, which was initiated by Larva Labs in 2017, has about 10,000 algorithmically created small pixel-art portraits that show different attributes of people, animals, zombies, aliens and others. They are distinguished by their looks, embellished by accessories such as hats, sunglasses and jewelry, or by their hairstyles. Some have even rarer traits that make them even more valuable.

The nine portraits recently auctioned off included a CryptoPunk with a specific rare trait. Having a blue face and sunglasses is the alien CryptoPunk named CryptoPunk 365, The Verge said in a report. Another image among the nine sold was CryptoPunk 2, the one with the heart-shaped black hair that holds the distinction of being labeled as the second work in the 10,000-work series.

The CryptoPunks platform has been one of the pioneering NFT projects on the Ethereum blockchain, Tech Crunch noted. While they kept about 1,000 of those NFT images, their creators gave the rest of the 10,000 away. Since then, an active NFT community was created around the CryptoPunks/

Exhibit Before CryptoPunks Auction

Before the auction, Christie's displayed the CryptoPunks pieces around New York public spaces in cooperation with urban art provider SaveArtSpace, Coin Telegraph further reported. The exhibit, titled Pixelated, presents 193 Cryptopunks until June 6, with a similar exhibit held in Miami last April.

Another auction is set for another CryptoPunk pixelated work, Cryptopunk #7060 set for Thursday.

While the sale is indeed substantial for the CryptoPunks team, it comes days after the release of their new project, a series of 3D tokens called Meebits that has sold for $80 million on the Ethereum blockchain, The Verge further added.