Infinite Node Foundation (NODE), a nonprofit focused on digital art, has acquired the intellectual property of the CryptoPunks non-fungible token (NFT) collection from Yuga Labs, NODE said in a May 13 announcement.
The acquisition of CryptoPunks, plus its additional $25 million endowment, establishes NODE as “the most well-capitalized nonprofit dedicated solely to digital art in the United States,” the foundation said in an X post.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The nonprofit said it has assembled an advisory board to oversee the CryptoPunks collection. It comprises Matt Hall and John Watkinson — the artists behind the NFT collection — and a representative of Yuga Labs, among others.
“Our role is to build a networked architecture that allows digital art like CryptoPunks to thrive within both digital and art-historical canons,” NODE said.
The highest-grossing CryptoPunks NFTs. Source: CryptoPunks
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Most valuable NFT collection
CryptoPunks are “algorithmically generated pixel art characters” that “changed the art world by existing outside of it and sparked a cultural shift that continues to reshape our digital world,” according to NODE.
It is the most valuable NFT collection, with a total market capitalization of nearly $1.2 billion across its 10,000 NFTs as of May 13, according to data from CoinGecko.
The CryptoPunks collection was launched in 2017 by Larva Labs, an NFT designer co-founded by Hall and Watkinson.
Since then, the NFTs have clocked upward of $3 billion in sales, according to NODE. Each NFT sale creates royalties for the holders of the NFTs’ IP.
In 2022, the highest-grossing CryptoPunk NFT sold for nearly $24 million, according to CryptoPunks’ website. The collection was purchased in 2022 by Yuga Labs, best known for designing the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection — the third-largest NFT collection by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.
Yuga simultaneously purchased Meebits, another Larva NFT…
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