Stephanie Douse 
One out of the nine “alien” CryptoPunk in existence which are incredibly rare has been sold for a whopping $23.7M. This doubles the last record of $11.8M sold last year.
A record-breaking $23.7 million was paid for an ultra-rare pixelated “alien” from the CryptoPunk collection, which comprises 10,000 non-fungible tokens.
In a tweet, Chain CEO Deepak Thapliyal stated that he was the buyer of Punk #5822.
Thapliyal had previously paid around $2 million on NFTs from The Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, which had for the first time in December overtaken CryptoPunks by floor price. Thapliyal purchased the Punk using Compound Financial, a decentralized finance mechanism.
Larva Labs’ CryptoPunks, which debuted in 2017, were significantly responsible for bringing NFTs into the mainstream, with some notable celebrities, including Jay-Z, joining the club. Each Punk is distinct in appearance, but the “alien” Punks are incredibly rare: there are only nine of them in existence.
The owners of wealthy NFTs are increasingly using their Punks as collateral, following in the footsteps of traditional art collectors.
Some of the most costly NFTs
Punk #5822 has outstripped the CryptoPunk NFT ($23.7 million and $11.8 million, respectively) purchased by millionaire Shalom Meckenzie in June.
Beeple’s collage “Everydays — The First 5000 Days,” which sold for $69 million at Christie’s auction in March, is still the most valuable NFT ever sold.
The NFT community was surprised by a $532 million CryptoPunk purchase in late October, but it was later revealed that the buyer was simply pulling a public act by selling the Punk to himself using a flash loan.
In late February, Sotheby’s will auction a collection of 104 CryptoPunk as a single lot dubbed “Punk It.”