The $500 Million Sale That Turned Out Fake

Fuzzy white haired punk #9998 at the center of controversy

While three hoodie punks sold for millions, it’s a fake sale of a fuzzy white haired character from the CryptoPunks NFT collection that made headlines. Punk #9998 transferred for 124.450 ETH, which translated at the time of the transfer to $529.77 million. However, this wasn’t a legitimate sale.

The blockchain is transparent, and everybody can see. The buyer and seller of Punk #9998 are the same, and the NFT holder used a flash loan to buy the punk for an insane amount. After that they then paid the money back. This NFT holder didn’t make a profit, and perhaps just wanted the bragging rights for one day. We covered this flash loan NFT purchase more expansively in a separate blog post.

Even though the half a billion dollar purchase will remain the talk of town for some time, there are other CryptoPunk sales that stand out as well. The numbers 2, 3 and 4 on the list are all hoodie punks, adding value to the punks with the hoodie attribute.

Amidst all the CryptoPunks we also see a Bored Ape and a Fidenza. However, one NFT sale really stands out: Noun 40. This NFT is part of the NounsDAO, and every Noun NFT holder gets governance over their treasury. The smart contract creates one new Noun NFT every day, forever. Every Noun gets sold through a 24-hour auction. The revenues from these primary sales go directly into the treasury, which now contains 13.292 ETH or $57.7 million.