According to DappRadar, the day after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the number of active Non-Fungible Token (NFT) traders fell to its lowest point since November 2021, affecting collections such as CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club. Let’s see what happened.

CryptoPunks Non-Fungible Tokens attempt a recovery

Last Saturday, the day after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp took control of Silicon Valley Bank, there were only 12,000 active NFT traders, according to DappRadar, a number not seen since November 2021.

There were 33,112 individual NFT traders that day, the lowest daily count so far in the year. Since the beginning of March, the volume of non-fungible token trades has declined 51%, with sales down about 16%, DappRadar says.

However, not all collections of non-fungible tokens have been affected in the same way. In fact, projects from NFT issuer Yuga Labs, including Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, saw their minimum prices drop slightly Saturday, but prices quickly recovered.

One Twitter user compared CryptoPunks to USDC, arguing that it was more stable than the stablecoin, which lost its peg to the US dollar after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Specifically, the bank failed after selling most of its holdings at a loss to deal with a flood of withdrawal requests from customers. Sara Gherghelas, research analyst at DappRadar, said Yuga Labs’ success was amplified by its investment in CryptoPunks and its ability to build a community.

While the company said it has limited exposure to Silicon Valley Bank, its token holders have not made big moves on the news. Gherghelas stated on the matter:

“They have a very clear road map, the team is visible and they have decided to make a good project after the Ape ecosystem. They keep building. They are proving that if you are a part of their community, they have so many advantages and benefits.”

SVB drags with it some NFT collections: let’s see which ones

Not all collections made it through the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank unscathed. Shortly after the news broke on 10 March, Proof, the NFT collective behind the popular Moonbirds collection, took to Twitter to share that the company had some funds invested in Silicon Valley Bank, sparking uncertainty among holders. As stated:

“A statement from the PROOF team regarding SVB: Many of you saw the headlines this morning about the closing of Silicon Valley Bank. The most important thing for us, in good times and bad, is to communicate with our community proactively and transparently.” 

Proof continues on Twitter:

2/5: In the spirit of transparency, here’s everything we know about the situation with SVB:

Proof holds cash at SVB, however…
We’ve thankfully diversified our assets across ETH, stablecoins, as well as fiat—so financially and operationally, we’re going to be OK.

— PROOF (,) (@proof_xyz) March 10, 2023

Over the weekend, Moonbirds lost about 18% of its value, according to DappRadar. One large holder sold 500 Moonbirds on Saturday, suffering losses of between 9% and 33% for a total of more than 700 ETH, or about $1.1 million.

Gherghelas said that, while news of Proof’s exposure to Silicon Valley Bank contributed to the uncertainty in the project, holders were pressured to sell because of the company’s shortcomings in recent months.

After canceling its Proof of Conference scheduled for May, the community remained uncertain about the company’s ability to deliver on its promises. In fact, Gherghelas concluded:

“People, users and consumers are getting more selective and they don’t want hype, they want the perks, benefits and utility behind that NFT collection.”

What is the exposure of CryptoPunks Non-Fungible Tokens to SVB?

As we now know, the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) fallout on Friday sent shockwaves throughout the crypto and technology industries, leaving many companies uncertain about their financial positions.

However, Yuga Labs co-founder Garga reassured the community that their event would have no impact on their business. In a recent statement, Garga provided much-needed relief to Yuga Labs investors.

According to Garga, Yuga Labs has “super limited exposure” to the now-bankrupt bank. This means that the company’s finances will not be significantly affected by the fallout. Garga also acknowledged that other cryptographic and technology companies may not be so lucky.

On the other hand, Yuga Labs has already proven to be proactive in protecting its finances. During the FTX fallout in November 2022, co-founder Gordon Goner reassured the community that the company’s money was safe.

According to him, the funds were held in Coinbase Custody, bank accounts, and T-Bills. Goner also revealed that the company had transferred its money from FTX.us before the fall. This demonstrated Yuga Labs’ commitment to financial security and risk mitigation.

CryptoPunks NFT have always been a flywheel for this world, now they are starting to be exchanged for Ordinal Punks.

CryptoPunks nft have made headlines for a controversial exchange that saw original CryptoPunk #4155 being traded for an Ordinal Punk 16.

The swap we reported on appears not to have been the only one between the two types of NFTs.

Recap on the Ordinal Punks NFTs

It certainly seems that Bitcoin’s NFTs are growing in popularity by leaps and bounds, to the point where they are being traded with the more emblazoned CryptoPunks nft.

A software engineer, Casey Rodarmor, thanks to an intervention made on Bitcoin’s blockchain on 21 January, introduced the Ordinals protocol.

Thanks to the protocol that was incorporated into Bitcoin’s blockchain, it is now possible to enter data called Ordinals.

Each of the 100,000,000 units that make a Bitcoin are also called ‘sats’.

The data not only allows NFTs to be created from scratch but also smart contracts on the historical chain.

As of today, it is essentially possible to create NFTs not only on the Ethereum chain, but also on the Bitcoin chain.

Ordinal Punks constitute a collection of Bitcoin NFTs of 100 PFPs.

The PFPs are minted within the first 650 entries at last in a reliable manner on the Bitcoin chain.

CryptoPunks NFTs Recap

The first NFT project in history is one of the most important and appreciated digital art collections.

In total there are 10,000 CryptoPunks, but some of them have been lost.

On average, CryptoPunks nft have reached a value even above $100,000, which depends on the specifics of each one.

The NFTs in the collection that have hoodies, hat or pilot’s helmet are among the most sought after for example.

The zombie or alien CryptoPunks nft, on the other hand, are extremely rare and give a reward to the owner.

Characteristics of these non-fungible tokens include 3279 NFTs with at least 2 accessories, 288 with mustaches, 6039 male, and 419 with hat and shirt.

The market value of CryptoPunks

Three days ago, the unthinkable happened, via “Ordinal Punk Sales” who spread the news on Twitter, there was an account of a trade between Ordinal Punk and CryptoPunks.

“Trade confirmed: Ordinal Punk 16 for CryptoPunk 4155′. The CryptoPunk in question is a male punk, with a cap, earring and goatee. On the other hand, the Ordinal Punk has glasses and no hair.”

Both NFTs born on Ethereum and those born on Bitcoin more recently are priced at $100,000 to date.

Thanks to this exchange that saw a collector deprive himself of a historic CryptoPunk in exchange for an Ordinal Punk, it was established that the latter are achieving the same status as the former.

STX (the Stack Network token) is up 50% since yesterday just as a result of these exchanges.

Ordinal Punks are on the crest of a wave to the point that a second CryptoPunks was also traded in favor of an Ordinal.

CryptoPunk 4053 (77.50 ETH) was traded for $125,258.

The two collections of CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) continue to blow up the NFT market, with CryptoPunk #5066 selling for 857 ETH, the equivalent of $1.4 million.

CryptoPunks and BAYC and the recent million-dollar NFT sales

Over the past few days, the two popular NFT collections of CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) have recorded million-dollar sales.

Specifically, CryptoPunk #5066 was sold last Monday for 857 ETH, the equivalent of $1.4 million.

Punk 5066 bought for 857 ETH ($1,400,192.27 USD) by 0x26206c from 0x8721cf. https://t.co/Su6Cyohr8r #cryptopunks #ethereum pic.twitter.com/wwmKp9Dsjk

— CryptoPunks Bot (@cryptopunksbot) February 6, 2023

The seller is Kevin Rose, venture capitalist, serial entrepreneur and well-known NFT collector and co-founder of the NFT startup Proof (Moonbirds). However, the buyer is apparently unknown, although it appears that soon after the purchase, the NFT was transferred to another wallet, called bitshamed.eth.

A BAYC NFT also saw the same kind of sale. It is BAYC #7090 was sold on x2y2 for 800 ETH, or $1.3 million. The seller turns out to be Jimmy “j1mmy” McNelis, whereas again the buyer is not identified.

Ape #7090 bought for 800.00 ETH (1,304,744.04 USD) on X2Y2 #BAYC #BoredApe https://t.co/KfYR9Z87ZT pic.twitter.com/140OkQWCI6

— BAYC Sales Bot (@BAYCsalesbot) February 7, 2023

The sign of recovery in the Non-Fungible Token market

When a million dollar sale occurs, a collective sigh of relief sweeps over the entire NFT market. These days the two collections have achieved that goal.

Since the beginning of 2023, according to data from DappRadar, sales volume rose 38% to nearly $947 million in January, while the total number of NFTs sold during the month increased 42% to 9.5 million.

According to CryptoSlam’s data, over the 7 days, the blockchain ranking regarding sales volume sees Ethereum in first place with a 32.5% increase, followed by Solana which saw a 16% drop and then ImmutableX with a 26.8% increase in NFT sales.

CryptoPunks drops to second position by market cap

Compared to the end of January, CryptoPunks’ total market cap fell to 807,000 ETH, causing the NFT collection to drop to second place, according to NFTGo data.

In fact, completely dominating the NFT scene is the BAYC collection which, at the time of writing, has over 854,000 ETH in total market capitalization and 984,000 ETH in total sales volume. In contrast, CryptoPunks sees a total sales volume of 958,000 ETH.

Furthermore, there have been as many as 16 sales of NFTs from the BAYC collection in the past 24 hours. Compared to 2 from the CryptoPunks collection. Even in the past seven days, BAYC NFT sales have been higher than those of CryptoPunks, accounting for 127 versus 43.

Sales of the famous CryptoPunks are returning to dominate the NFT scene in 2023 that has just begun. In the last 24 hours, CryptoPunk #9788 was sold for 90 ETH, the equivalent of nearly $147,000.

CryptoPunks dominate the NFT scene, along with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)

According to data from NFTGo, the famous CryptoPunk collection is dominating the NFT market scene, with a total market cap that, at the time of writing, stands at nearly 825 ETH, the equivalent of more than $1.7 billion. 

And indeed, precisely in the last 24 hours, CryptoPunk #9788 was sold at 90 ETH, nearly $147,000, while CryptoPunk #2595 was sold at 66.69 ETH. 

Next in the ranking by market capitalization is Yuga Labs’ NFT collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), with a total market cap of 801 ETH, the equivalent of $1.6 billion. 

Here too, in the last 24 hours, there have been mind-boggling sales such as BAYC #1556 for 145 ETH, the equivalent of nearly $237,000, and BAYC #2526 for 120 ETH, the equivalent of $204,250. 

Speaking of which, if we look at the rankings by sales volume (as opposed to market cap), at the time of writing it is the BAYC collection that is in first place, followed by CryptoPunks. 

CryptoPunks: the NFT market begins 2023 in the green thanks in part to Blur

The NFT market, captained by CryptoPunks, has definitely decided to start 2023 in green, with increases in sales compared to December 2022.

https://twitter.com/Delphi_Digital/status/1615046230131806214

As Delphi Daily points out with its tweet, the Dune Analytics data also mention increases in sales volume in 2023 by one particular NFT marketplace: Blur. 

In fact, as of 2 January 2023, Blur reported a total sales volume of more than $98 million, even surpassing OpenSea’s $97 million. 

Blur was launched on 19 October 2022 and is an NFT aggregator, where users can compare NFTs across marketplaces and manage portfolios with advanced analytics and purchase their NFTs. Compared to GEM’s marketplace, on Blur, users can sweep and snipe NFTs 10 times faster. 

The renewed interest in Profile Picture (PFP) NFTs

What is happening in this newly started year appears to be a renewed interest in Profile Picture NFTs (or PFPs) with Ethereum-based ones such as CryptoPunks gaining the most traction. 

CryptoPunks are the unique 24×24 pixel, 8-bit style avatar and represent a tokenized image. They are regarded as a work of art and a new form of asset tokenization that has become invaluable in the NFT market. 

The collection features 10,000 pixelated, punk-looking images depicting male and female characters, as well as those imitating zombies, monkeys, and aliens. Each punk is one-of-a-kind and is sold either by individual owners on the secondary market or on auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s. 

In 2021, the year of the NFT explosion, there are many new entrants to the industry who have procured a CryptoPunk. Among the many was the electronic payments giant, VISA, which had purchased the NFT CryptoPunk 7610 at 49.50 ETH, which at the time was the equivalent of $150,000. 

In recent days, CryptoPunks NFTs have surpassed the value of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection. This is a really big achievement, bringing the floor price of CryptoPunks to 60 ETH, while Bored Ape NFTs fall below 60 ETH. 

What are CryptoPunks NFTs?

CryptoPunks are the unique 24×24 pixel, 8-bit style avatars which are effectively tokenized images. They are considered a work of art and a new form of asset tokenization that is very valuable in the NFT market, sometimes selling for millions of dollars.

There are 10,000 of these pixelated, punk-looking images depicting male and female characters, as well as those imitating zombies, monkeys, and aliens. Each punk is unique and is sold either by individual owners, i.e., on the secondary market, or at prestigious auction houses, such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s. 

The non-fungible tokens in the CryptoPunks collection were created by mobile software company Larva Labs, which produces apps for iOS and Android devices. Released in 2017, the project began as an experiment and at the time of release 9,000 were given away, while the blockchain kept only 1,000. The experiment started as an entertainment idea, and no one, including the creators imagined that it would become something so big and valuable. 

Today, we can easily say that it is one of the most popular NFT products of the moment, surpassing Bored Ape‘s NFTs. CryptoPunks is one of the products with the most expensive price tag.

This leads the NFT product to be purchased at very exclusive figures, resulting in many famous people owning one, among the most famous names we have: JayZ, Snoop Dogg and Serena Williams.

The lowest value recorded on Tuesday 15 November sees CryptoPunks’ NFTs at around 66 ETH, or $73,000. As for Bored Ape Yacht Club, the lowest value recorded is around 58.5 ETH. 

CryptoPunks arrive in art museums

Yuga Labs devised a plan to donate CryptoPunks NFTs to modern art museums around the world, starting with Punk #305. The NFT was donated to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, which offers free admission, and will be on view there after a private opening event on 2 December during Art Basel. The reason why Punk #305 was specifically chosen among the 10,000 NFT is that it corresponds to one of Miami’s prefixes. It is the first donation in a larger initiative called Punks Legacy Project. 

Noah Davis, brand leader of Yuga Labsper CryptoPunks, told Decrypt that many more NFTs will be donated to other museums in the future:

“It’s not about a number of punks, but rather finding museums and mainstream arts organizations that want to get into Web3 for the right reasons.”

Davis explains that his goal is to focus on quality rather than quantity.  

In conclusion, the Non-Fungible Token inspired by the Punk movement is indeed fashionable. It is now to be considered a true work of art. The now skyrocketing price makes these NFTs a true collector’s item. 

CryptoPunks’ famous and expensive NFT collection is being updated with the “CryptoPunks.App Restoration Project” program, an initiative announced directly by Yuga Labs. 

CryptoPunks NFT: Yuga Labs Announces Restoration Project 

Yuga Labs announced the start of work on the CryptoPunks.App update through a roundup of tweets.

Over the last couple of months we’ve been sourcing feedback from the Punks community about what we can do to celebrate the Punks legacy while simultaneously setting it up for long-term success.

— CryptoPunks (@cryptopunksnfts) October 11, 2022

“Work has begun on the http://CryptoPunks.App Restoration Project. Over the last couple of months we’ve been sourcing feedback from the Punks community about what we can do to celebrate the Punks legacy while simultaneously setting it up for long-term success.”

Basically, relying on the community’s decision, Yuga Labs maintains that CryptoPunks.App needs a revamp to evolve its marketplace, which to date remains one of the most popular in Non-Fungible Token history. 

The company said that together with trusted and experienced community members, it will work to restore the website, improve the overall UX/UI, and ensure that all technical vulnerabilities are addressed.

Not only that, Yuga Labs also stated that the restoration project will not happen in isolation, but that all changes will be implemented only after community approval. 

CryptoPunks: the top 5 most expensive NFTs in the collection in 2022

The famous 10,000 NFT collection of CryptoPunks, launched in 2017 by Larva Labs and developed on the Ethereum blockchain, is nowadays still among the most highly valued. 

Despite the explosion of the Non-Fungible Token market in 2021, in 2022 it is possible to see how much CryptoPunks are still valued, through this ranking of the top 5 most expensive NFTs. 

In first place is CryptoPunk #5822, a super-rare Alien Punk, priced at $23.58 million, followed in second place by CryptoPunk #4156 at $10.26 million and, next, CryptoPunk #5577 with a price of $7.7 million.

Moving down the podium, we find in fourth place CryptoPunk #3100 priced at $7.58 million and in fifth place CryptoPunk #7804 priced at $7.57. 

Staggering figures that confirm how much people are still willing to spend on a Punk NFT. In the ranking, there is also evidence that three are Punk Alien, while two are Punk Ape. 

The long “crypto winter” does not stop the staggering figures of the NFT market

Remaining in the NFT sector and specifically on the collection of CryptoPunks, just recently it appears that there was a $4.5 million trade.

Punk 2924 bought for 3,300 ETH ($4,451,633.94 USD) by 0x9045de from 0x1da533. https://t.co/bh7Rjs9Aob #cryptopunks #ethereum pic.twitter.com/PT9v9bCC5s

— CryptoPunks Bot (@cryptopunksbot) September 28, 2022

“Punk 2924 bought for 3,300 ETH ($4,451,633.94 USD) by 0x9045de from 0x1da533.”

No fears about the “long crypto winter” for CryptoPunk NFTs. And indeed, just late last month, someone reportedly bought #2924 for 3.3 ETH, the equivalent at the time of $4.5 million. 

A sale price in ETH defined as the fourth largest of all time for CryptoPunks, even though it does not rank in the top 5 most expensive NFTs per US dollar.

CryptoPunk #2924 is one of only 24 monkeys comprising 10,000 unique NFT profile images. Not only that, according to Rarity Tools, it is considered the 38th rarest for its attributes. 

Yuga Labs under investigation by the SEC

A few days ago, news broke that Yuga Labs is under investigation by the US Security Exchange and Commission (SEC) for possibly violating federal law in terms of securities. 

Since it is an investigation, obviously there is no charge or conviction by the SEC yet, only investigation and monitoring.

The subject of such a scrutiny by the SEC, in addition to the NFT collections of CryptoPunk and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), appears to be ApeCoin, the ERC20 token launched by Yuga Labs related to its BAYC ecosystem. 

Precisely regarding ApeCoin, the SEC believes it is a security instead of utility token and therefore should follow the relevant rules. 

Gary Gensler: “cryptocurrencies are securities”

The basic problem between the SEC and crypto, is that the SEC would like to regulate the cryptocurrency market without yet having clearly defined its nature. 

And in fact, earlier this month, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler reportedly said that in his opinion almost all crypto assets are securities, and therefore should follow the laws governing that industry. 

At the same time, however, many citizens and lawmakers argue instead that tokens and cryptocurrencies should be regulated by the Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC). 

The topic of the definition of cryptocurrencies and related regulation is still an unresolved but nonetheless hot topic, with some cases still unresolved such as the one against Ripple.

It is common knowledge nowadays that all big announcements in the crypto world are almost always made on Twitter, avoiding all the formalities of news outlets.

This is what happened with Noah Davis, Non-Fungible Token expert who works, or rather used to work, for the famous auction house – Christie’s.

The announcement was made yesterday, Sunday 19 June, by Noah himself, who wanted to reassure his followers with a short thread.

What does that mean? It means no Punks on lunchboxes or cringe TV shows/shitty movies. It means no arbitrary rushed utility or thoughtless airdrops. It means if you love your Punk(s) because they are what they are (just Punks) then you and I see eye to eye…

— Noah (@NonFungibleNoah) June 19, 2022

Noah Davis, the new Brand Lead of CryptoPunks

Noah, the top NFT expert for one of the most famous auction houses, announced that he will be leaving his position in July to take on the role of Brand Lead for the CryptoPunks collection with Yuga Labs.

In the brief Twitter thread, Noah also made it clear that he had no intention of bringing in any rushed collaborations that were far removed from the nature of the historic NFT collection. Thus reassuring the large community of CryptoPunks holders.

Noah then invited all CryptoPunks owners to attend the NFT event in New York to talk to him about the future of the project.

It is worth mentioning, that Davis is a prominent figure in the Non-Fungible Token scene. In fact, he is one of those “responsible” for the record-breaking auction – Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days NFT, which sold for over $69 million in March 2021.

Potential insider trading

As is well known, Yuga Labs acquired the intellectual property of the CryptoPunks collection from Larva Labs in March, stating that it would hand over all commercial rights to the owners, a promise yet to be fulfilled.

However, attentive collectors have noticed an almost suspicious increase in sales volume from the graphs.

Since the announcement, 39 sales have been made, reaching 101 on Sunday, compared to only 19 the day before.

According to some, considering the announcement of Davis’s move and the new terms that will soon come into effect, it may be that some members of the team were aware of the information, thus falling into what is known as insider trading.

The con artist protagonist of the series – Inventing Anna, launches an NFT collection

The protagonist of one of the most talked-about TV series of the year – Inventing Anna, is about to launch her own NFT collection. 

The series is based on a true story, which tells the vicissitudes of a clever con artist: Anna Sorokin.

From 2013 to 2017, Anna pretended to be a wealthy German heiress: Anna Delvey, managing to defraud acquaintances and collaborators of over $275,000. 

The collection, entitled Reinventing Anna, will consist of 2,000 NFTs, priced at 0.1 ETH each.

She explained that she wanted to undertake this new project to have a way to interact with her fans in private.

The collection will contain 20 “gold edition cards”, which will allow owners to have a one-to-one meeting or phone call with the girl.

Sorokin wrote publicly under one of his Instagram posts:

“I see this first drop as an opportunity to directly connect with my audience and take charge of the narrative that’s been largely outside of my control”.

Duppies followers were victims of scams

Duppies, a new NFT project created by the same team as “DeGods”, was unfortunately the victim of a scam on Saturday.

The dynamic was something like this.

The project’s main account was hacked, and once in possession of the main communication channel with the community, hackers tweeted the profile, inviting followers to click on a link leading to a phishing website.

Unfortunately, users who linked their wallets and attempted to mint these phantom NFTs had all their money stolen. 

The metaverse might generate $5 trillion by 2030 

The predictions regarding the importance that the metaverse could gain in the coming years seem quite clear. 

According to some analyses, carried out by major industry players such as the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the metaverse could generate up to $5 trillion by 2030 and more than 80% of trade could be influenced by activities in the metaverse.

Shocking data on the future of the metaverse

The consulting firm McKinsey & Company released a report last week entitled “Value Creation in the Metaverse”.

According to this research, by 2030 it is highly likely that more than 50% of live events will take place in the metaverse.

But that’s not all, it is also predicted that over 80% of commerce could be connected in some way to the metaverse.

Estimating that the average Internet user could spend up to six hours a day in metaverse experiences by 2030.

The figures speak for themselves: more than $120 billion already flowed into the metaverse space in 2022, more than double the $57 million in 2021.

The report in question reads:

“While estimates vary widely, we forecast it [the metaverse] may generate up to $5 trillion by 2030. 

Our estimate of the metaverse’s potential impact by 2030 is based on a bottom-up view of consumer and enterprise use cases”.

McKinsey’s prediction does not seem to deviate much from the others.

In fact, even Citigroup has predicted that the metaverse could be a $13 trillion opportunity with 5 billion users by 2030, while Goldman Sachs comes very close, describing the metaverse as an $8 trillion opportunity.

Perhaps it is time to embrace the idea that innovation continues to advance at an ever-increasing pace and that the future ahead could be much more virtual and advanced than what we now call the present.