No, a CryptoPunks NFT Didn’t Just Sell for $56 Million

Did a While it’s true that CryptoPunk 1563 was First off, this particular CryptoPunk was last purchased for about $69,000 worth of ETH in September. It doesn’t have any particularly rare attributes, which means it typically sells near the entry-level (or floor) price for the collection. It’s a “floor Punk.” There’s no obvious reason why it would jump in value by 81,000% in a matter of weeks.Punk 1563 bought for 24,000 ETH ($56,292,000.00 USD) by 0x9cbb3d from 0xba1349. https://t.co/FqDvGZvg05 #cryptopunks #ethereum pic.twitter.com/hWimHKYb0x— CryptoPunks Bot (@cryptopunksbot) October 3, 2024A look at In a single transaction, the “buyer” of the NFT took out a 24,000 ETH loan from DeFi protocol Balancer, and then the “seller” paid back the loan to Balancer. No one actually made any money, though whoever pulled the stunt paid network fees and the Punk was indeed moved between wallets.This isn’t the first time that this has happened, and in fact, the $56.3 million price here doesn’t even come close to the “record” set by a previous flash loan-funded Punk purchase.In October 2021, someone used flash loans to There’s an interesting twist in this case, apparently. According to pseudonymous on-chain sleuth 7/ The contract is set to accept the highest bid for Punk #1563 after a 7 day period (so long as the bid is at least as high as the current presale value).The dev then gets 10% of the token supply, and 10% of the funds received from the presale and sale of the punk.— Quit (@0xQuit) October 3, 20240xQuit notes that the CryptoPunk in question will be sold to the top bidder after the weeklong pre-sale phase, and that the developer is apparently betting that they will make more than the actual value of the Punk—current floor price is “tl;dr 24,000 ETH is a psyop to advertise what is basically a presale where, after 7 days, the punk is sold to the highest bidder with a minimum bid equal to the amount raised in the presale,” they explained. “Also maybe a political statement given the name and the clown makeup.”Excluding today’s questionable transaction, CryptoPunks sales over the last 30 days have generated about $16.7 million in trading volume, according to CryptoSlam. The biggest known (legitimate) CryptoPunk purchase came in February 2022 for