Sotheby's announced Tuesday that it will auction 104 CryptoPunks on Feb. 23. The NFTs are estimated to be worth between $20 million and $30 million.
According to Sotheby's, the CryptoPunks on auction were acquired last July in a single blockchain transaction by anonymous collector "0x650d." Additionally, the transaction is confirmed through the Ethereum blockchain analytics website Etherscan.
This stand-alone acquisition ties each of the 104 Punks to a wallet that currently holds more than 1% of all CryptoPunks, making it one of the largest Punk collections, according to a statement from Sotheby's.
The CryptoPunks were released by Larva Labs in 2017 and are among the most sought-after and expensive NFTs in the world. Each NFT is distinct, with distinctive characteristics and accessories such as mohawks, blue bandanas, and cigarettes.
Each punk in the collection is represented by a pixelated cartoon-style character sporting a distinct hairstyle. If the set sells for even half of its estimated price, it will rank among the most expensive NFTs art ever sold.
Though it is unlikely to surpass The First 5,000 Days (2021), the Beeple NFT that sold for $69.3 million during a Christie's digital sale last year, the grouping of "CryptoPunks" appears on track to become the most expensive NFT sold at an in-person auction.
"CryptoPunks is the original PFP series that established the template for subsequent NFT projects and helped establish NFTs as one of the most recognizable visual styles that has become synonymous with the digital art movement," Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby's co-head of digital art, said in a statement.
CryptoPunks has grown to be one of the most successful NFT collections, with a current floor price of 67.5 ETH, or about $207,000 in today's ether prices. That compares to an average price of about $67,000 in July, when the seller in the auction purchased the lot of CryptoPunks, according to Bitcoinist's $7 million purchase price report.
The auction house will accept cryptocurrency, and the successful bidder will have the option of paying in Ether, Bitcoin, USD Coin, or any other fiat currency. Also, the auctioneer will announce bids in Ether in addition to U.S. dollars.
Prior to the auction, Sotheby's will host a live panel discussion on the history of NFTs, examining how CryptoPunks gained mainstream recognition, with celebrities such as Jay-Z and Jason Derulo using Punks as their social media profile pictures.
In an annual report, the auction house referred to its performance in 2021 as "the strongest total in [the] company's 277-year history," in part due to its $100 million in NFT sales.
