coincodex.com
Key highlights:
- Visa has spent around $150,000 worth of ETH to buy a CryptoPunk
- The sale is already reflected in the CryptoPunk market, with the "cheapest" punk available now being listed for almost $250,000 worth of ETH
- Visa's head of crypto Cuy Sheffield says that the company is only getting started in the NFT space
Visa buys CryptoPunk for $150,000
Financial services giant Visa is making waves in the NFT world by spending about $150,000 worth of ETH to acquire a CryptoPunk. Visa announced its purchase in a blog post, with the company’s head of crypto Cuy Sheffield commenting that Visa believes NFTs “will play an important role in the future of retail, social media, entertainment, and commerce”.
On a more practical note, Sheffield explained that the purchase will give Visa firsthand experience in what it takes for a major company to purchase, safely store and use NFTs. Visa worked with institutional-grade cryptocurrency services provider Anchorage Digital to facilitate its CryptoPunk purchase.
Sheffield also said that the CryptoPunks purchase is only the beginning of Visa’s work in the NFT space:
“We’re a company steeped in the history of commerce and payments — but with our eyes on the future. With our CryptoPunk purchase, we’re jumping in feet first. This is just the beginning of our work in this space.”
Cryptopunks are a collection of 10,000 algorithmically generated NFTs that was created by Larva Labs back in 2017. Each punk is a 24x24 pixel image, and no two punks are the same. While all punks use the same basic template, they vary by gender, skin color, hair styles, accessories and other attributes of varying rarity. CryptoPunks are issued as tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.
Initially, CryptoPunks were distributed free of charge, but the collection has since gained a cult following among NFT enthusiasts, with punks now fetching massive amounts in secondary sales. Visa spent 49.5 ETH to buy CryptoPunk #7610, a female punk sporting the “Mohawk”, “Clown Eyes Green” and “Hot Lipstick” attributes.
CryptoPunk 7610, currently owned by Visa. Image source: Larva Labs
The “cheapest” punk that’s currently on sale is going for 75 ETH (about $248,600), which shows that Visa’s purchase and the resulting publicity has significantly raised the price floor for CryptoPunks.
In the last 24 hours, the volume of CryptoPunks sales jumped by 81.6%, according to crypto collectible aggregator CryptoSlam. This includes a 1,600 ETH ($5.34 million) sale of CryptoPunk #7252, which sports the ultra-rare “Zombie” attribute.