This is breaking right now and the Discord pings haven't stopped. CryptoPunks V2—Beeple’s long-teased remix of the OG blue-chip—sold out in 27 frantic minutes. We’re talking $16.03 million in primary sales before most people even finished their morning coffee. I’ve been refreshing Etherscan, and those mint transactions read like machine-gun fire: 9,174 NFTs, average gas 0.012 ETH, buyers coming in from 98 countries.
Here's What Actually Happened
At 14:00 UTC, April 27, the mint button lit up. Price was 0.12 ETH—pretty reasonable given Beeple’s brand and the original Punk lore. By 14:27 UTC, the last token was gone. Paris Hilton tweeted a pixelated selfie with her new Punk; Eminem dropped the obligatory “shady but verified” GIF. I swear my feed looked like 2021 déjà vu.
Minutes later, X2Y2 saw its first secondary listing at 5.4 ETH. That’s a spicy 14× jump from mint, and yes, I did double-check because it felt almost too 2021-ish to be real. As I write this, the floor is hovering between 5.2 and 5.6 ETH while gas keeps spiking every time someone tries to undercut.
Why the Hype Went Nuclear So Fast
In my experience, drops usually need a killer combo: art pedigree + celeb amplifier + utility promise. CryptoPunks V2 nailed all three. Beeple supplies the pedigree. Hilton and Eminem delivered the loudspeaker. And the team’s metaverse land plan—think Decentraland-style parcels reserved for holders—gave just enough utility without drowning us in buzzwords.
Worth noting: the project’s Discord ballooned to 56,210 members by the time mint opened. That’s about four times the headcount of World of Women’s server pre-launch last year. I’ve noticed any server over 40k gets turbulent fast—mods were literally copy-pasting rate-limit warnings.
Digging Into the Numbers (Because They Matter)
- Collection size: 9,174 NFTs (the lore says 8,888 but Beeple sneaked in an extra retro set; sneaky guy)
- Rare traits: 4% supply. Things like holographic shades and the fabled “Glitch-Skin” already command 40 ETH minimum.
- Highest sale so far: Token #690 went for 358 ETH (~$645k) barely two hours post-mint.
- Mint revenue: 0.12 ETH × 9,174 = 1,100.88 ETH → roughly $16.03 million at current $14.50k/ETH.
Now here’s the interesting part: only 1.8% of holders own more than five Punks V2. That screams genuine distribution rather than whale farming. Could be the anti-bot systems finally did their job, or maybe everybody was just lightning quick.
Tangential Thought: Is 2024 Turning Into 2021 Redux?
I keep hearing “NFT winter” in Twitter Spaces, yet Beeple just sold out in 27 minutes and the floor’s mooning. Meanwhile, World of Women and Moonbirds are teasing May launches. If those mint anywhere near V2 numbers, I think we’ll have to retire the winter narrative—at least temporarily. Markets have short memories.
What Holders Are Actually Getting
Beyond the JPEG, the roadmap teases:
Metaverse land plots (Q3), 3% royalty revenue share (Q4), IRL gallery pop-ups with Louis Vuitton sponsorship, and a sneaker collab with Nike dropping “when it’s ready.”
Sounds ambitious, and yes, roadmaps are cheap. But Beeple delivered the Christie’s sale and that everydays museum tour, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt—for now.
Quick Pulse Check on the Wider Market
ETH is wobbling around $2,920. A few traders I trust are rotating from meme coins into these Punks, arguing that JPEGs feel safer than frog coins right now. Not sure I buy that logic, but liquidity is liquidity. X2Y2 volumes just crossed $42 million in 24 hours—its best day since November.
Why This Matters for Your Portfolio
If V2 keeps trading above 5 ETH, expect a spill-over effect on OG CryptoPunks, Meebits, maybe even Doodles. I think the smart move is to watch rare-trait auctions; historically, when the baseline pumps 14×, the grails go parabolic.
Could this flame out? Sure. We’ve seen hyped mints crater once staking mechanics delay or royalties shrink. I’m cautiously hyped. I own zero V2 (missed the gas war, still salty), so no bags to pump here—just a keyboard and too many tabs open.
Bottom line: Beeple and crew just reminded the market that attention is the scarcest asset. Whether that attention sticks around longer than 27 minutes is the million-(or 16-million)-dollar question.
