An investor has offered a CryptoPunk non-fungible token (NFT) at an almost $10 million realized loss, reflecting the continued decline within the once-booming blue-chip NFT market.
A whale, or giant cryptocurrency investor, offered a CryptoPunk NFT for 4,000 Ether (ETH) value greater than $6 million on the time of writing.
The investor initially bought the NFT for 4,500 ETH, or roughly $15.7 million, a 12 months in the past, based on blockchain analytics agency Lookonchain.
“Did he solely lose 500 $ETH($774K)? No—he truly misplaced $9.73M!” Lookonchain wrote in an X publish. “When he purchased it, $ETH was buying and selling at $3,509. By the point he offered, $ETH had dropped 57%,” the platform added.
CryptoPunk purchase and promote. Supply: Arkham Intelligence / Lookonchain
Regardless of the steep loss, the $6 million transaction nonetheless ranks as the biggest NFT sale over the previous 30 days, in accordance to information from CryptoSlam.
Prime NFT gross sales previous 30 days. Supply: CryptoSlam
The sale comes throughout a interval of stagnation for NFTs, which have been missing wider dealer curiosity. NFT buying and selling quantity on Ethereum is down greater than 53% over the previous month, whereas Polygon’s NFT buying and selling quantity fell 41%.
CryptoPunks noticed a momentary ground worth surge of 13% after rumors that its proprietor, Yuga Labs, is perhaps “within the course of” of promoting the gathering’s mental property, Cointelegraph reported on Jan. 14.
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Blue-chip collections see steep drop
The highest blue-chip NFT collections stay considerably down from their 2021 highs amid a scarcity of buying and selling exercise.
CryptoPunks presently have a ground worth of about 43 ETH, or $68,000, down greater than 61% from their file excessive of 113.9 ETH in October 2021.
CryptoPunks NFT ground worth, all-time chart. Supply: NFTpricefloor
The Bored Ape Yacht Membership’s ground worth can be down 89%, whereas the Mutant Ape Yacht Membership assortment is down 93%, NFTpricefloor information exhibits.
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Nonetheless, the Pudgy Penguin assortment stays an outlier. It reached a brand new all-time excessive of over 25 Ether on Dec. 16, 2024, and amassed the best gross sales quantity of over $72 million within the first quarter of 2025, Cointelegraph reported on March 28.
Supply: Yuga Labs
Initially of March, the US Securities and Change Fee closed its three-year investigation into Yuga Labs, an investigation initiated below former Chair Gary Gensler, which aimed to probe NFT creators and marketplaces, to see if some NFTs, similar to fractional NFTs, had been securities.
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