Trader Loses $10 Million on Rare CryptoPunk NFT

Alien CryptoPunk 3100 is on the move again, but this time the selling party has taken a crippling loss.

The rare non-fungible token (NFT) was purchased in March 2024 for 4,500 ETH, worth $16 million at the time, resulting in a $8.5 million profit for the original seller. However, the anonymous buyer decided to offload it just one year later and sold Punk 3100 for 4,000 ETH ($6 million) today.

While the seller realized an 11% loss in ETH terms, the seller lost 62% of their investment in dollar terms due to Ethereum’s lackluster price performance. ETH is down 56% over the last year.

The move may represent capitulation on the seller’s part, as they ignored a 5,250 ETH bid, worth $11.57 million at the time, just one month ago.

Punk 3100 is one of the rarest CryptoPunks, as there are just nine alien punks in the 10,000-piece collection. Most have remained in early buyers or claimers' wallets, but Punk 3100 is now on its fifth owner, and the NFT has accounted for three out of the ten highest CryptoPunks trades ever.

While NFT volumes and price action have been anemic, CryptoPunks and XCOPY art are the two sectors within the market that have maintained activity.

The CryptoPunk floor is currently 42.5 ETH, up more than 100% in ETH terms since its recent low of 20 ETH in August.

XCOPY has experienced a surge in volume, with several low supply editions selling for more than 30 ETH ($45,000) per piece over the last 24 hours. XCOPY’s unique PFP collection, known as Grifters, is also up and currently trades at a 17 ETH ($25,000) price floor. The Grifters collection was trading at around a 10 ETH floor at the beginning of March.