Ethereum NFT Breakdowns · 01
CryptoPunks.
Given Away For Free.
Ten thousand pixel portraits nobody wanted, claimed for the price of gas, and now ten of them hang in the Museum of Modern Art.
CryptoPunks is a collection of 10,000 pixel portraits on Ethereum, launched by Matt Hall and John Watkinson of Larva Labs in June 2017 and given away free to anyone willing to pay the gas. Yuga Labs bought the intellectual property in March 2022 and sold it to the Infinite Node Foundation in May 2025.
Minted
June 2017, free to claim, gas only.
Aliens
Out of ten thousand. Also 24 apes and 88 zombies.
The IP Moved Again
Yuga Labs to the Infinite Node Foundation.
Into MoMA
Ten punks in the permanent collection.
The Rise
A giveaway nobody took, until one article ran.
June 2017, Ten Thousand Portraits, Free
Matt Hall and John Watkinson of Larva Labs generated 10,000 portraits at 24 by 24 pixels from 87 attributes and let anyone with an Ethereum wallet claim one for the price of gas, which was almost nothing at the time. Dozens were claimed in the first week. Source: Infinite Node Foundation.
One Article Cleared The Rest Of The Stock
Mashable published a piece arguing the project could change how we think about digital art. Every remaining punk was claimed inside twenty four hours. Nothing about the art changed between the two days. The supply, the attributes and the price were identical. Source: Infinite Node Foundation.
It Predates The Standard It Inspired
CryptoPunks shipped before ERC-721 existed and does not implement it. Wikipedia records it as an inspiration for the standard rather than an example of it, which is why it shipped with its own marketplace contract instead of using the one everything since has used. Source: Wikipedia.
The Turn, And What It Cost
A record sale that was not one, an auction pulled mid flight, and an IP that keeps changing hands.
October 2021, The $532 Million Sale That Was Not A Sale
Punk #9998 changed hands for 124,457 ETH, about $532 million. It was a flash loan self purchase: the buyer borrowed the money, bought their own punk and repaid the loan inside the same transaction. The sale was invalidated. The largest number in this collection’s history is not a price. Source: Wikipedia.
23 February 2022, Sotheby’s Pulled 104 Punks Mid Auction
A single lot of 104 CryptoPunks was withdrawn by the seller twenty three minutes into the auction. Source: Wikipedia.
11 March 2022, Yuga Labs Bought The Intellectual Property
Yuga Labs acquired the CryptoPunks IP from Larva Labs and gave full commercial rights to the owner of each punk, which holders had never had before. The transfer completed on 7 May 2022 and the marketplace moved to Yuga’s own site. Source: Wikipedia.
May 2025, Yuga Sold It On Again
The Infinite Node Foundation acquired the full intellectual property from Yuga Labs and assembled a Punks Advisory Board including both original creators alongside people from Yuga Labs and Art Blocks. Its permanent hub in Palo Alto opened in January 2026 with an exhibition called 10,000. The IP has had three owners in three years and holders voted on none of them. Source: Infinite Node Foundation.
The Art
Three pictures of a collection whose entire visual language is 24 by 24 pixels. I do not know the licensing on these files, so they are published as collection imagery and nothing here claims who made each one.
Sixteen Of Ten Thousand
Humans, one zombie, one ape. The rarity is not a badge on the picture, it is which of the 87 attributes the generator happened to give you in 2017, and nobody knew what any of it would be worth.
On A Wall
Framed and hung in a row on concrete. Printing a 24 by 24 pixel image at gallery scale is a decision, not a default, and it is the decision that made a museum acquisition legible.
One Punk
Headset, 3D glasses. Twenty four pixels across and readable at any size, which is the whole reason this format outlived the projects that spent more on their art.
What It Teaches
Three things worth taking off this one.
Free Distribution Is The Rarest Thing In The Category
No presale, no team allocation, no allowlist. Anyone could have had one for the price of gas and almost nobody did. Every collection since has charged for the thing this one gave away, and not one of them can claim this origin story.
Owning The Token Is Not Owning The Character
A holder owns a punk. Somebody else owns the right to license the picture, and that somebody has changed twice since 2022. Read who holds the IP before assuming the two are the same thing. Here they were not, until 2022, and the terms came from a company the holders did not pick.
A Museum Is A Different Kind Of Buyer
MoMA does not sell, does not watch a floor and does not care what thirty day volume did. Ten punks entering a permanent collection in December 2025 is demand that behaves nothing like the demand that set the price in 2021, and it is worth understanding which kind you are looking at.
Collection facts sourced from Wikipedia, CoinDesk and the Infinite Node Foundation, with every figure carrying its date and its publication in the row it appears in. Where a claim is an allegation it is attributed to the person or outlet that made it rather than stated as fact. Where a fact could not be sourced, and the Pudgy Penguins illustrator is the case here, the page says so instead of filling the gap. Prices and floors are dated snapshots, not live figures. Nothing on this page is a price forecast.
The Other Breakdowns
Same shape every time: what happened, what it cost, and what it teaches.
Common Questions
A collection of 10,000 pixel portraits on Ethereum, 24 by 24 pixels each, generated from 87 attributes and released by Matt Hall and John Watkinson of Larva Labs in June 2017.
Yes. Anyone with an Ethereum wallet could claim one for the price of gas. Dozens went in the first week, and the rest cleared inside twenty four hours after a Mashable article. Source: Infinite Node Foundation.
Nine aliens, twenty four apes and eighty eight zombies, out of ten thousand. The rest are 6,039 male and 3,840 female humans. Source: Infinite Node Foundation.
The Infinite Node Foundation, which acquired it from Yuga Labs in May 2025. Yuga had bought it from Larva Labs in March 2022 and granted full commercial rights to each punk’s owner. Sources: Wikipedia, Infinite Node Foundation.
No. It is a breakdown of a collection. NFTs have no cash flows, the floor can fall a long way, and Cody Wise is not a licensed advisor.
The Rise Is The Easy Half.
The Turn Is The Lesson.
Every breakdown on this site publishes what went wrong at the same weight as what went right, with a date on each of them.
Not financial advice.