CryptoPunk token of alien with mouth cap is auctioned for 10 million euros

Are all those analog paintings made with paint that are sold through expensive auction houses really worth their money? However, digital ‘art’ can also be quite rewarding. Such as a CryptoPunk nft of an alien with a mask, which has been auctioned for almost 10 million euros.

Auction house Sotheby’s has sold the ‘extremely rare’ artwork called Alien CryptoPunk #7523 from the collection of digital art lover and collector Sillytuna. This auction was part of a larger round auctioning non-fungible tokens or NFTs. According to the British auction house The revenue of 11.8 million dollars, converted just under 10 million euros, means a new world record for a single CryptoPunk.

The token, also known as Covid Alien, was bought by Shalom Meckenzie, the largest shareholder of digital sports company DraftKings. The name Covid Alien comes from the fact that in this case a blue skin color is used and that a mouth cap is visible. Created in 2017, CryptoPunk #7523 is one of nine alien CryptoPunks created by Matt Hall and John Watkinson, the founders of Larva Labs. It is the only one with a mouth cap.

In total there are 10,000 unique CryptoPunks with 24×24 pixels. In addition to the rare nine aliens, there are also 24 monkeys, 88 zombies, 3840 women and 6039 men in the entire collection. They all have up to eight distinguishing features.

NFTs have become very popular lately. When people buy NFTs, they get the rights to the unique token on the blockchain rather than the artwork itself. Most NFTs are images or videos, but some are ‘born’ as NFTs by having a smart contract perform an action and thereby create NFTs, such as Cryptokitties and the CryptoPunks.