The Defiant

Bored Apes’ Floor Price Briefly Passes CryptoPunks as NFT Race Intensifies

The floor prices for Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs briefly surpassed CryptoPunks as the context between the two intensifies.

By: Samuel Haig Loading...

Bored Apes’ Floor Price Briefly Passes CryptoPunks as NFT Race Intensifies

The floor price of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs briefly surpassed that of CryptoPunks for the first time, with no tokens from either collection fetching a price tag below $200,000.

On Dec. 22, media outlets spotted that the floor price — the value of the cheapest NFT from a collection that is available for purchase on leading marketplace OpenSea — for BAYC had risen to 53.9 ETH (roughly $213,450). At the same, the floor price of CryptoPunks had fallen to a four-month low of 52.69 Ether (roughly $208,650).

However, opportunistic NFT traders have since responded to the BAYC news, with the cheapest Bored Ape now up for auction at 52.2 Ether ($206,700) while CryptoPunks’ floor is sitting at 53.83 ETH ($213,000).

All-time Highs

While Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have frequently posted new all-time highs for its floor price since November, CryptoPunks has seen its floor price plummet by more than 50% this quarter.

BAYC and CryptoPunks floor prices. Source:The Block

Created by Larva Labs in 2017, CryptoPunks have long been among the most valuable NFTs, with many investors prizing them for their OG status within the crypto ecosystem.

The project produced 10,000 Ethereum-based pixelated collectibles depicting 24-by-24 pixel cartoon faces. No two CryptoPunks are the same, with different characters donning a unique combination of attributes such as hairstyle and color, skin tone, and accessories.

Hastily Minted

Larva Labs made 9,000 CryptoPunks available for anybody to mint freely minus gas fees on a first-come-first-serve basis, retaining 1,000 of the NFTs for themselves. While investors were initially slow to catch on, all CryptoPunks were hastily minted within 24 hours after the project was covered by the popular media outlet Mashable.

Larva Labs sold nine of their Punks via Christie’s, the auction house, for $17M in May. The following month, Larva Labs also generated more than $1M when it sold 24 signed and sealed lithograph prints depicting various CryptoPunks in an auction hosted by Sotheby’s.

The NFT project was among the first to leverage Ethereum’s smart contract capabilities to create a series of collectibles where the authenticity and ownership of individual works can be publicly verified using blockchain. It also inspired the ERC-721 token standard, which remains extremely popular among NFT issuers today.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club launched in April of this year, with its 10,000 unique cartoon apes being put up for primary purchase for roughly $300 worth of Ether each at the time. The collectibles also entitle their owners to participate in discussion in the Bored Ape Yacht Club forums online.

While sales were initially slow, BAYC’s told Rolling Stone the remaining tokens rapidly sold out after the project suddenly exploded in popularity “overnight.” In September, 101 BAYC NFTs were auctioned for $24.4M on Sotheby’s. Individual Apes would begin fetching seven-figure prices a few months later, with a single NFT from the series selling for a record $3.4M in October.

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