A rare alien nonfungible token (NFT) claimed the second highest selling price ever for a CryptoPunk on March 4 when it sold for 4,500 Ether (ETH), worth $16,032,959 at the time of sale.
Aliens among us
An anonymous bidder purchased the NFT, dubbed CryptoPunk #3100, at some time around 2:30 pm UTC. After several days of bidding, the purchaser upped their previous bid of 4,250 ETH (worth $14.78 million at the time) to the closing price of 4,500 ETH.
CryptoPunk #3100 is one of 10,000 total CryptoPunks and one of only 406 with a headband. But its current value is likely due to it being one of only 9 Alien CryptoPunks.
The highest winning bid for a CryptoPunk to date occurred on Feb. 12, 2022, when CryptoPunk #5822 (an alien wearing a bandana) sold for 8,000 ETH (worth $23.7 million at the time).
Interestingly, the bandana is slightly less rare than the headband, with 481 CryptoPunks wearing the former versus the aforementioned 406 with the latter attribute.
Rarity isn’t everything
Technically speaking, if only the least prominent individual alien NFT attribute among all CryptoPunks is accounted for, the alien wearing an earring and a cowboy hat would register as the rarest. Mathematically, however, the alien with a cap forward, a pipe and shades is the rarest by number of attributes and rarity of each attribute.
The market is ultimately dictated by sales, and for whatever reason, “alien with bandana” and “alien with headband” remain the cream of the crop when it comes to CryptoPunks. They’re joined in the top four by two other alien pieces. The rest of the top 10 is rounded out by CryptoPunks with the “ape” attribute.
The most expensive NFT ever purchased at auction is Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” which sold for $69,346,250 on March 11, 2020.
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