The cryptocurrency market has been going through a low period since the end of last year and this “bear market” has also extended to the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) sector. According to data from The Block, between the months of January and June 2022, NFT trades dropped by around 94%, from around $16.6 billion to just $1 billion. However, in the midst of this market cooling, something worth mentioning happened. On Tuesday night (12), an NFT from the popular CryptoPunk collection sold for 2,500 Ether (ETH), which equates to a price of just over $2.6 million. In other words, more than R$ 14 million at the current exchange rate in reais. The NFT in question was CryptoPunk 4464, a rare token from the collection. This item is one of 24 monkey-themed NFTs in the entire 10,000 token collection. It features a vape, eye mask, and a durag.
Punk 4464 bought for 2,500 ETH ($2,615,224.91 USD) by 0x561786 from 0x33eaae. https://t.co/xqtkT3BeER #cryptopunks #ethereum pic.twitter.com/iCAAG4LKHg
— CryptoPunks Bot (@cryptopunksbot) July 12, 2022
“Punk 4464 bought for 2,500 ETH ($2,615,224.91) for 0x561786 of 0x33eaae.”
NFT CryptoPunk 4464 Sale
According to data from CryptoSlam, the sale of the digital collectible for the millionaire value was the biggest NFT sale of the last 30 days in the entire market, defying the current bearish context. That sale topped two NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection that sold for $1.2 million and $1 million, respectively. On a macro level, considering the price in Ether (ETH), the sale of this CryptoPunk 4464 becomes the fourth most valuable sale in the collection of all time, tied with two other monkey NFTs from CryptoPunks. Meanwhile, considering the US dollar price, this is CryptoPunk’s 15th most valuable sale to date. This million-dollar sale shows that while bearish sentiment is circling the NFT market, large collections still attract attention.
Why buy an NFT for millions?
For Kei of Crypto Ninja, people buy NFTs for millions of dollars for a few reasons. Among them, he highlighted the feeling of belonging to a community: “Today the CryptoPunks community is made up of the biggest OGs in the NFT market. The networking you can create within these communities is insane. In addition, many buy these assets to have a part of the history of NFTs in their wallet”, highlighted Kei. Also according to him, the punks were the first to build a successful narrative among the collections. Therefore, prices remain high. Launched in 2017 by Larva Labs, the CryptoPunks collection is one of the most valuable and successful NFT projects on the market. So far, the collection has generated more than $2.3 billion in secondary trading volume.
Experts comment on falling NFTs
Regarding the drop in NFTs, Caio Vicentino, MakerDAO ambassador in Brazil, pointed out that what actually dropped were the movements and not the prices of NFTs: “From the liquidity point of view, the market dropped, but the The value of large collections of NFTs is in line with what the market had priced in the past. So, we had this big sale of US$ 2.6 million, but there were other sales of NFTs of this style of Punks, the ‘apes’, at the same level”, highlighted Vicentino. Who agrees with Vicentino is Kei, from Crypto Ninja. He stressed that the drop in NFT transactions is a reflection of the global context: “The global context dictates the rules of trading in the equity market. NFTs, being illiquid assets, have more difficulty and less liquidity compared to other assets. As a result, trading volume has dropped.” However, Kei pondered that, when analyzing the total number of NFT users, it is possible to notice that it only grows, there are already more than 1.9 million users. But, he pondered that not all collections are worth it: “NFTs are something new. They are not just a profile picture. There are metrics to fundamentally evaluate the collections that are emerging. But at the same time, we need to be careful because 99% of the collections will die. Thus, it is up to the investor to detect the 1% that has a chance of consolidating and becoming a successful brand.” Also read: Celsius Network files for bankruptcy and token collapses 50% Also read: MoonPay announces new partnership to make payments on Web3 Also read: European Central Bank suggests banning PoW-based cryptocurrency by 2025
