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CryptoPunk Evolution History

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In the extraordinary year of 2020, Larvalabs' CryptoPunk ushered in explosive growth

Original title: "The CryptoPunks Evolution"

Original author: besancia

Original translation: 0x13, Rhythm BlockBeats

Introduction

When it comes to the first generation of NFT applications on the Ethereum network, no one will forget" Cryptopunk (CryptoPunk)". CryptoPunk has attracted much attention since its birth in 2017, because at that time, its design itself was extremely subversive, and it was very different from any project at the time.

Larvalabs, the production team of CryptoPunk, used ERC long before IC0 and "CryptoKitties" made waves The -20 standard minted 10,000 PUNK tokens, and each PUNK token represented a pixel art image generated by artificial intelligence.

Lavalabs’ choice to mint tokens using the ERC-20 standard is unexpected as this standard Not suitable for such a variety of artistic images. And if Lavalabs had waited a few more months, the ERC-721 standard would have helped them better with token issuance. Never mind, all the CryptoPunks were quickly claimed after the Larvalabs team announced that their tokens would be given away to anyone with an Ethereum wallet.

At the time, no one could have imagined that three years later this highly experimental project would generate almost $3 million Record sales, and it continues to attract hundreds of new collectors.

How has CryptoPunk "evolved" step by step over the years?

2017: The birth of CryptoPunk

Time Back in May 2017, the Larvalabs team announced a big news to the encryption community. They will give away 10,000 PUNK tokens to community members for free, and each PUNK token corresponds to a unique pixel art image , enthusiastic community members quickly snapped up PUNK tokens.

Subsequently, CryptoPunk was airdropped to all claimants, and those claimants began to monopolize among community members, This also marks the birth of the earliest NFT market. The origin of the NFT market is not the primary market, but the secondary market.

The largest NFT trading platform OpenSea has not yet been born, so the only way to trade CryptoPunk is through the "Larvalabs" on the official website Market", this market is still in operation today, but at that time, because there was no web browser wallet plug-in that could be easily compatible with Web3 applications, this also brought some troubles to the transactions at that time.

But even so, the birth of CryptoPunk quickly detonated the market, but the good times did not last long. It gradually disappeared in August. One of the reasons is that although the trading volume of CryptoPunk is good, there is a lack of new collectors.

In the second half of 2017, out of a total of 10,000 NFTs, only 720 were sold to 28 new collections Home.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that when the price of Ethereum skyrocketed to $1,200, a large number of CryptoPunk holders Shelved. One of the reasons may be the high fees at the time, and another reason may be due to the more modern design of competitor CryptoKitties.

2018-2019: Competition intensifies

The price of Ethereum opened high and low in 2018, and then remained at a low level in the following time. It was only in 2019 that CryptoPunk collectors got out of this bleak period and started to re-examine the potential behind CryptoPunk.

Unlike CryptoKitties, which can be generated indefinitely, the total number of CryptoPunks is fixed, and no new NFTs will be generated. The two also address the scarcity of digital artwork on the blockchain in the NFT ecosystem. Whether generated by artificial intelligence or manually created by humans, blockchain technology can prove the authenticity of digital works in a tamper-proof way.

This feature of blockchain technology is one of the core reasons why encrypted works of art retain their value. In addition, with the birth of encrypted art platforms such as SuperRare, many artists have grown and developed in this market, and in the process, more people began to pay attention to this field.

So, why did CryptoPunk have so little trading volume between 2018 and 2019? It is likely due to the fact that the Ethereum network has spawned a lot of other NFT projects during this period to distract people's attention. NFT followers became interested and invested in these new projects, causing their CryptoPunk to fall into silence again.

2020: Thrive

Undoubtedly, with the development of the encrypted art market, the scarcity of CryptoPunk itself will make them more valuable; and the "flooding" of artistic NFTs has also further increased the value of CryptoPunk, the pioneer of encrypted art.

2019 can be called the year of the birth of encryption art. With the development of the entire NFT market, the public really began to The interest in this field was at the end of 2019, and this interest ushered in a sharp increase in 2020.

Since April, CryptoPunk’s turnover has ushered in a small increase, but CryptoPunk, like other projects, is facing high Many new collectors who want to join are discouraged by the troubles caused by the gas fee.

But even so, the sales of CryptoPunk in the first half of 2020 reached 478,000 US dollars, surpassing the previous three years of CryptoPunk sum of sales.

The number of CryptoPunk collectors also ushered in a large increase in the first half of 2020, with 82 new collectors joining, and Most of them bought more than one CryptoPunk NFT. Compared with the old players, these "newcomers" seem to have greater curiosity, or at least have more resources and assets. In June 2020, 594 never-before-traded CryptoPunks were traded to new collectors.

The time has come to September 2020, and the global NFT boom after the "DeFi Degens" incident has also made CryptoPunk set a new all-time record in September. In the month of September alone, CryptoPunk sales hit $1 million, with 651 CryptoPunks being traded to 138 new collectors.

From the beginning of 2020 to November 30, CryptoPunk’s global sales reached $2.743 million, Attracted 360 new collectors, 1645 CryptoPunks changed hands for the first time.

Summary

In 2020 In this extraordinary year, Larvalabs' CryptoPunk ushered in explosive growth, with sales in one year exceeding the sum of sales in the previous three years. CryptoPunk saw a 700% increase in sales in dollar terms and a 300% increase in new users.

Up to now, a total of 3447 CryptoPunks have been traded, and their initial valuation is determined by collectors and initial airdrops Claimants are mutually negotiated, and due to their raw nature and scarcity due to their unique technical dimensions, the first holder naturally takes into account many additional factors that affect value. This figure also means that from May 2017 to the present, there are still about 6,500 CryptoPunks that have not been traded or valued.

Their low liquidity and their trading history make CryptoPunk one to watch in the next few years Asset Class.