One wallet accounted for 57% of the sales
- We investigate what is driving CryptoPunks sales whilst the price of Ethereum crashes
- A single buyer purchased 6 CryptoPunks within the two days analyzed. Spending a total of $43,594 in Ethereum at the time of writing.
At the start of 2020, DappRadar started reporting about the rise in activity on CryptoPunks, one of the first NFT collectibles in the dapp space. Since that time we have observed sustained but fairly low-level activity through the dapp in regards to sales of already owned punks but something is bubbling in the world of CryptoPunks recently.
The dapp has generated a total of over $76,000 in sales in the last 2 days. Over $37,000 of this value has come from the top 3 sales.
Furthermore, two of these 12 sales have now entered the top 10 all-time high-value sales of CryptoPunks. This spike in activity has led us to investigate what is happening.
One theory is that those people who were heavily invested in recent weeks across DeFi and Exchange protocols have found a different store of value outside of tokens amid the recent decreasing value of Ethereum.
NFTs here act as a safe haven as the price of the CryptoPunk in ETH terms may not change, whilst the token value fluctuates. If one deposits their Ethereum into a CryptoPunk as oppose to just in Ethereum then they may negate a financial loss. The buyer can sell on that NFT for the same or higher value depending on its rarity and uniqueness at a later date.
Follow the money
After looking at sales over the last 2-days with a value of over $1,000 that gave us 12 addresses to investigate. Once we delved into the wallet addresses and looked at the individual activity we could see two things.
Firstly it appears that the top 12 buyers are all NFT enthusiasts and most already had impressive collectible inventories in their wallets. Wearables, NFT art, digital images, in-game characters, etc.
Secondly, by looking at the buyer transactions through Etherscan we see the facts. A single buyer purchased 6 CryptoPunks in one day. Spending a total of $43,594 in Ethereum at the time of writing.
Interestingly, the purchases occurred between 2-time slots. The buyer first bought CryptoPunks 8697, 1232, 6807 on the 6th of September between 4.20 and 4.30 PM. The second round of purchases took place slightly later in the day between 12.45 and 2.30 AM where the buyer purchased 5944, 7898, and 5684.
One reason for the inclusion of time stamps here is that interestingly the buyer chose to make the first purchases at the point in the day just after the token price had hit its lowest point. Down from $482 to $354.
Overall the data shows us that from the total amount of $76,138 generated in sales between the 6th and 8th of September, a single buyer was responsible for 57% of the expenditure, or $43,594.
CryptoPunks as an investment
It is very possible that this buyer made an active decision to move their Ethereum from a potentially difficult position of further decreasing value to a new store of value which historically has always increased.
What is clear from looking at the wallets of these purchasers is that there is nothing conclusive to suggest that they were previously engaged in some yield farming activities and then decided to exit and invest elsewhere.
The only signs we see after analyzing the top 12 wallets are that they have interacted with DeFi and DEX protocols such as 1Inch, Uniswap, and Balancer for example. But this is no conclusive evidence to support the theory of yield farmers migrating to CryptoPunks.
But what is quite clear is that NFTs and collectible artworks are taking on a new form. Not just that of an ownable and useable digital item but as a store of tangible and increasing value.
As always, we will continue to track the fascinating world of NFT collectibles. Make sure you bookmark DappRadar and sign up to our newsletter below to get updates direct to your inbox.
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