Auction house Sotheby’s has made history in the NFT space after selling a CryptoPunk NFT for $11.75 million. The NFT, CryptoPunk 7523, also called “Covid Alien,” is part of an auction titled “Natively Digital: A curated NFT Sale.” The auction was set to run from the 3rd of June to the 10th and will contain 27 unique digital artists. Also, the auction will signify the first time a major action house will conduct a sale with just NFT artists.
The CryptoPunk NFT, which is the highlight of the auction, are digital character artworks. CryptoPunks is a series of unique pixel-art characters numbering up to 10,000. CryptoPunk 7523 is considered a rare type. The #7523 is one of nine Alien CryptoPunks and the only one with a subject wearing a mask. Each Cryptopunk has unique features that make it different from others. Apart from the nine alien cryptopunks, the others are 24 apes, 88 zombies, 3,840 females, and 6,039 males.
The digital character artworks were generated on the Ethereum blockchain and were initially gifts to anyone with an ETH wallet. According to Larva Labs, which launched CryptoPunks in 2017, the digital character artworks are the first-ever NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. Also, the launch motivated the ERC-271 standard that is now deployed for more digital arts and collectibles.
