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NFT royalty CryptoPunks has a new home — and it’s not another tech giant.
Yuga Labs has sold the CryptoPunks intellectual property (IP) to the Infinite Node Foundation (NODE), a nonprofit focused on preserving internet-native culture and digital art. The price is undisclosed, but the foundation also received a $25 million endowment to support its mission.
From pixel art to cultural archive
Launched in 2017 by Larva Labs, CryptoPunks helped pioneer the NFT movement with 10,000 algorithm-generated pixel characters. The collection has raked in over $3 billion in total sales — and one NFT sold for $24 million in 2022.
NODE called the collection a “cultural shift” that redefined art’s place in the digital world. With a market cap nearing $1.2 billion, CryptoPunks remains the most valuable NFT collection to date.
Who’s behind NODE?
NODE is now the best-capitalized nonprofit for digital art in the US, thanks to the $25 M fund. Its advisory board includes:
• Matt Hall and John Watkinson (the creators of CryptoPunks)
• A Yuga Labs representative
• Additional yet-unnamed advisors
NODE says its mission is to create a “networked architecture” that embeds digital art like CryptoPunks into both internet culture and art history.
Yuga shifts focus
Yuga Labs acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits in 2022, but has been offloading IP since February. With the SEC recently closing its investigation into Yuga — which the company called a “huge win for NFTs” — Yuga may be refocusing on its Bored Ape ecosystem and Otherside metaverse.
