- A CryptoPunk NFT worth $1.5 million has been bought for $23,000
- CryptoPunk #2386 was previously fractionalized but the monitoring website went offline
- One of the owners of the fractionalized pieces offered to buy all the fractions for 10 ETH or roughly $23,000
One of the rarest CryptoPunks, Punk #2386, has changed hands for $23,000, much less than its actual value of around $1.5 million. The NFT had previously been fractionalized into 10,000 collectibles but the website facilitated the trading of the individual pieces went offline leaving collectors stranded. The current owner, however, accessed the smart contract powering the fractionalized pieces and offered to buy all the 10,000 fractions for 10 ETH instead of its actual value of 600 ETH, making some in the community label the move as a heist.
No Counter Offers for 14 Days
The Punk’s previous owner locked the NFT in an escrow account on the Ethereum blockchain and created the Niftex website to help trade the fractionalized collections. Although fractionalized into 10,000 pieces it attracted 257 holders.
Punk 2386, with a current high bid of 600 eth, sold for 10 ETH today.
A combination of clever sleuthing, followed by an unfortunate miscalculation leads to a 7 figure payday for 0x282.
— Quit (@0xQuit) September 11, 2024
The holders, however, were unable to trade their holdings when Niftex went offline leaving access and trading only available by directly accessing the smart contract on the blockchain. An anonymous entity accessed the smart contract and placed a bid to buy all the 10,000 fractionalized NFTs for 10 ETH.
According to the smart contract’s settings, a buy bid could only be fulfilled if it’s unopposed with a counter offer for 14 days. One of fractionalized NFTs holder placed a buyout bid on August 28. The bid wasn’t countered with a higher offer for two weeks triggering the sale of Punk #2386 for 10 ETH.
The Acquisition Wasn’t Without a Fight
The acquisition wasn’t, however, without a fight with some other Punk #2386 fractionalized holders trying to unsuccessfully block the buyout because they weren’t sure how much to bid to counter the 10 ETH offer.
The buyout comes three weeks after another CryptoPunk NFT worth around $24 million was sold for an undisclosed amount and a week after a report indicated that 96% of NFTs are dead.
With Punk #2386 being sold for 10 ETH, it’s to be seen whether the new owner will list it for a higher amount.
