CryptoPunks
CryptoPunks represent the only historically relevant narrative upon which value could conceivably live for decades within an expanding catalogue raisonné, and I’ll be damned if I’m counting Jack’s tweet.
CryptoPunks, some of the first NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, were created by software developers Matt Hall and John Watkinson, aka Larva Labs, in 2017. As a fixed set of 10,000 and therefore a “safe” investment, they are represented by algorithmically-generated pixellated avatars, with extra mileage promised from a classic 8-bit aesthetic.
The creators claim that CryptoPunks “inspired the modern CryptoArt movement,” which glazes over the fact that artists and curators who have been thinking about how to interact with the blockchain for years—but okay, in the sense that CryptoPunks represent a vanishingly thin barrier between art and transaction.
CryptoPunks, at first distributed for free, aren’t trying to be anything other than tokens. That’s fine. Somewhat charmingly, the market for CryptoPunks has dispersed to porn site CamSoda, where one sold for $200,000 to “mrpussyfucker23.” Every mrpussyfucker deserves his day.
But if Sotheby’s and Christie’s succeed, and they usually do, CryptoPunks will assume a permanent role as a storage space for generational wealth for decades to come.
