Rare CryptoPunk NFT Has Changed Hands for $6M, Sellers Absorbed a $10M Loss

A rare CryptoPunk NFT has changed hands for $6 million, with the seller absorbing a massive $10 million loss. The transaction highlights the ongoing cooling of the once-hot NFT market. By Zach By Zach

A rare CryptoPunk NFT sold for $6 million on Monday, with the seller taking a massive $10 million loss on the sale.

CryptoPunk #3100, one of only nine Alien Punks in the original 10,000-piece collection, sold for 4,000 Ethereum (ETH), which is worth about $6.07 million. The transaction was completed on Monday through a private offer on the CryptoPunks marketplace, with art brokerage firm Fountain reportedly handling the deal.

Punk 3100 bought for 4,000 ETH ($6,084,359.86 USD) by 0x074ad7 from 0x705876. https://t.co/YMzLi5i8se #cryptopunks #ethereum

— CryptoPunks Bot (@cryptopunksbot) April 10, 2025

The sale sees the anonymous owner take a steep loss on the NFT, which they purchased in March 2024 for 4,500 ETH. At the time of purchase, the sum was worth about $15.9 million.

The seller accepted 500 fewer ETH than they originally paid and, with Ethereum’s price having fallen by approximately 56-57% over the past year, that combination is estimated to have amounted to a $10 million decrease in dollar terms.

The buyer funded their purchase with ETH from an account labeled “Coinbase Prime 2” on the Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan.

CryptoPunk #3100 now appears three times on the all-time top sales leaderboard for CryptoPunks. It previously sold for $7.58 million and $16.03 million.

Its extreme rarity helps to maintain a multi-million dollar price tag despite the broader NFT market downturn.

Alien CryptoPunks are the most scarce ‘type’ in the collection, even rarer than Zombies (88 exist) and Apes (24 exist). CryptoPunk #3100 is the only Alien Punk with a headband, making it uniquely valuable.

The seven highest on-chain CryptoPunk sales are all of Alien Punks. This includes the record holder CryptoPunk #5822, which sold for $23.7 million in February 2022.

NFT TRADER DOWN $10M ON CRYPTOPUNK

This NFT Trader bought an Alien Cryptopunk 1 year ago for 4.5K ETH ($16M). He just sold it for 4K ETH ($6M).

He just locked in a $10M loss.

Address: 0x70587661c804c72BBa25EcddD8d17B332C984017pic.twitter.com/765PHvUzob

— Arkham (@arkham) April 10, 2025

While CryptoPunks remains the premier profile picture NFT collection, its financial performance has declined sharply. The collection’s floor price has dropped 67% from its all-time high of 125 ETH set in 2021.

At that peak, when ETH traded around $3,500, the minimum price for any CryptoPunk was above $400,000. Today, the floor price averages 42.5 ETH, which is just $65,900.

The broader NFT market is also facing headwinds. According to DappRadar’s Q1 report, NFT trading volume decreased to $1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2025, a 24% decrease quarter-over-quarter.

This decline in volume indicates fewer high-value transactions rather than a drop in users. Despite the downward trend, CryptoPunks still holds a significant share of the market, contributing 23% to the $2.7 billion global NFT market capitalization.

Earlier this month, the Pudgy Penguins collection nearly surpassed CryptoPunks as the most expensive NFT collection.

The Pudgy Penguins saw its floor price surge from $19,000 to more than $138,000 between November and mid-December 2024.

CryptoPunks were created by Larva Labs in 2017 and were originally free to claim. The intellectual property was later sold to Yuga Labs, creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club, in 2022.

The sale of CryptoPunk #3100 is the largest on-chain CryptoPunk transaction since April 25, 2024, when Punk #7804 sold for 4,200 ETH, which was valued at $1