CryptoPunk Collector Pulls Out of Sotheby’s Auction

With the demand for non-fungible tokens still on the rise, there have been several auctions selling rare NFTs for absurd amounts of money. However, on this occasion, one NFT collector decided against selling his stash right before listing it on the Sotheby’s auction house.

According to the anonymous NFT collector, he listed his collection of CryptoPunks named Punk It! a few weeks earlier, and the sale should have started yesterday, February 23rd. However, just 6 hours ago, the user opted out of the auction, stating that he has decided to "hodl."

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Some Twitter users argued that the collector pulled out of the auction because there were no bidders that would pay the amount that he was asking for the collection.

Likewise, the owner of the CryptoPunk collection posted a meme jokingly suggesting that Yale University, which has been allegedly purchasing Bitcoin for over a year and sold its first NFT back in May of 2021, was looking to get its hands on the CryptoPunk collection for a discount. 

After canceling the listing, some users on social media suggested that the decision to withdraw from the Sotheby’s auction will give a bad name to NFTs, driving the market into the ground. 

Even more so, professional poker player Haralabos Voulgaris had a back-and-forth with the NFT collector who withdrew from the auction. The NFT collector deleted his reply shortly after being lit up by the community.

However, in another tweet, he posted a meme suggesting that he was taking CryptoPunks "mainstream by rugging Sotheby’s”, but some collectors felt that it was uncalled for and just brings more bad press to NFTs.

Even though NFTs have seen immense growth over the past couple of months, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding these digital assets, starting from thought-out rug pulls, to flat-out scams like counterfeit collectible sales.

With that being said, NFT sales have been quite successful, reaching a market cap of over $41 billion over the past year.

Aaron S., Editor-In-Chief

Having completed a Master’s degree in Economics, Politics, and Cultures of the East Asia region, Aaron has written scientific papers analyzing the differences between Western and Collective forms of capitalism in the post-World War II era.
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