CryptoPunks Floor Price Surges Past $100,000 Amid NFT Market Revival

Let’s talk about SCENE. This week, CryptoPunks hit a floor price of $100,000. That’s a big deal, especially with Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency market making gains. After months of lower demand, this marks a significant comeback for this well-known NFT project.

For the first time since June, the floor price—meaning the cheapest CryptoPunk you can buy—has gone above $100,000. This information comes from NFT Floor Price.

The rise in price is backed by a surge in trading volume within the Ethereum NFT collection. In just the last week, trading exceeded $14.5 million. Interestingly, there were more sales in the last four days than during any similar period in the past year, according to analyst Punk9059.

CryptoPunks saw a whopping 730% increase in trading volume compared to the previous week, as reported by CryptoSlam. Overall, the NFT market enjoyed a 95% jump in trading volume, reaching $163 million.

Some of this increased activity can be linked to new buyers entering the CryptoPunks space. The unique owner count has now reached an all-time high of 3,793, based on data from Etherscan.

This growth in unique holders is a shift from the earlier trend. Initially, CryptoPunks were claimed for free by a small group of early Ethereum and NFT adopters. This created a concentrated group of holders.

So, why are new buyers interested in Punks now? Many are likely looking to boost their NFT status. With the cryptocurrency market gaining over $500 billion in total market cap in just one week, there’s newfound wealth driving this interest.

Take the example of Wheresrare on Twitter (or X). They shared that they bought CryptoPunk #2965 for about $117,000, thanks to profits from “one good trade.”

“I knew what I had to do,” they said, referring to purchasing this iconic NFT. They also expressed gratitude to fellow traders in the crypto community.

CryptoPunks is one of the oldest and most notable NFT collections. The 10,000-piece collection was initially available for free on the Ethereum blockchain back in 2017. It even peaked at over $400,000 in November 2021.

Punks are considered a status symbol among serious crypto users. Their impressive sales figures enhance their reputation as digital luxury items. There have been five sales on-chain that exceeded $10 million each, and more than 50 sales above $1 million historically.

These NFTs have gained attention beyond the crypto community, too. Celebrities like Jay-Z and Steve Aoki use them as profile pictures on social media. Even with the NFT hype cooling off since 2021, Jay-Z still showcases Punk #6095 to his 2.9 million followers on X.

The traits of CryptoPunks have inspired many other NFT collections, including the Bored Ape Yacht Club. This collection has historically competed with CryptoPunks for the title of the most valuable NFT collection in the profile picture category. In March 2022, Yuga Labs, the parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club, acquired the CryptoPunks collection from its original creators.