In May 2025, CryptoPunks was "sent to the museum".
To be precise, Yuga Labs transferred the intellectual property of this project that pioneered the NFT art era to a non-profit organization called Infinite Node Foundation (NODE). The latter announced that this acquisition not only includes the full intellectual property of CryptoPunks, but also comes with a $25 million cultural fund, and will promote an ambitious museum collaboration plan dedicated to incorporating CryptoPunks into global mainstream art institutions.
They also boldly declared: "This is not a transfer of ownership, but a liberation."
Within hours of the announcement, the floor price of CryptoPunks quickly rebounded to around 48 ETH, with trading volume also showing a significant increase. The once-dormant trading interface became active again, as if reminding people of the glory these pixel icons once carried.
This blue-chip project, once considered the "Web3 totem", has entered a new chapter after experiencing multiple years of market peaks and emotional troughs. The foundation has also formed an advisory committee to manage CryptoPunks, with Larva Labs founders and artists Matt Hall and John Watkinson returning to manage the committee, along with Wylie Aronow (Yuga Labs) and Erick Calderon (Art Blocks) participating. Additionally, NODE will hire Natalie Stone as an advisor to support the NODE team during the transition period.
But is this "return" a new beginning or the end of an era?
From Pioneer to Classic: The Past and Present of CryptoPunks
CryptoPunks was born in 2017, created by the Canadian developer group Larva Labs, inspired by punk culture and generative art. 10,000 pixel avatars were minted for free, and at that time, there was no NFT market, with only a small number of Ethereum users claiming these images through smart contracts.
What truly made CryptoPunks the totem of crypto culture was the explosion of the NFT market in 2021. That year, NFTs became a mainstream topic of discussion, from Christie's auction house to mainstream media, all focusing on this new asset species. CryptoPunks, due to its "origin" identity, was viewed as a "classical artifact" of digital art, with prices soaring.
In August 2021, Visa announced the purchase of CryptoPunk #7610 for 49.5 ETH, calling it an "important asset for enterprises entering the NFT era", an action that sparked widespread imitation and drove a short-term wave of institutional NFT purchases. That same year, multiple Punk avatars were sold at high prices at Sotheby's and Christie's, such as Punk #7523 (commonly known as "Covid Alien"), which was sold at Sotheby's for $11.7 million, creating a record auction price for a single Punk. After experiencing the craziest phase of the NFT market, CryptoPunks' total transaction amount once exceeded $3 billion, establishing its mythical status as a "top blue-chip".
However, the peak did not last long. With the launch of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) in spring 2021 and its rapid construction of a strong social community, commercial licensing system, and celebrity influence, CryptoPunks gradually revealed its orthodox but silent limitations. Emerging projects won larger user groups through flexible IP licensing, peripheral products, and party events, while CryptoPunks, due to Larva Labs' non-commercial stance, prevented holders from commercially utilizing their Punk IP, gradually being marginalized in community activity and expandability.
This divide ultimately led to Yuga Labs' acquisition of CryptoPunks and Meebits IP in March 2022. The initial acquisition news had a positive impact on CryptoPunks' price, but the actual progression after the acquisition was not as aggressive as expected. CryptoPunks were not heavily commercialized under Yuga, which on one hand avoided vulgar IP generalization, but on the other hand, failed to establish an active ecosystem like BAYC. During these two years of Web3 winter, CryptoPunks gradually became an entity that was "respected but not touched".
Symbolic "De-financialization": Non-Profit Foundation Takes Over NFT Totem
The buyer of this sale, Infinite Node Foundation, is a non-profit foundation established in 2025 by venture capitalist Micky Malka and curator Becky Kleiner, with a vision of integrating internet-native art into mainstream cultural systems and conducting research, exhibitions, and archiving.
According to NODE, this acquisition is not a traditional merger. The foundation promises to build a permanent exhibition space in Palo Alto and will exhibit the complete 10,000 CryptoPunks avatars for the first time, which is the first time an NFT project has been curated in its entirety. Simultaneously, the gallery will run a real-time Ethereum node, emphasizing the "on-chain locality" and "immutability" of on-chain art.
NODE's language is very clear: they want to secure a formal position for internet-native art within academic systems and museum institutions. It seems that CryptoPunks is undergoing an identity transformation, no longer a speculative commodity, but a "cultural heritage" that can be exhibited, researched, and narrated.
But this transformation is not entirely romantic. Although the transaction amount has not been disclosed, the $25 million cultural donation fund established simultaneously may hint at Yuga Labs' "profit-taking exit".
For the latter, selling CryptoPunks is more like a resource focus and financial optimization. Yuga had launched large-scale layoffs in 2024 and clearly concentrated its business core on the Otherside virtual world and ApeCoin ecosystem, and selling Punks might be a rational divestment.
Who Defines the "Artistry" of NFTs?
Interestingly, the underlying theme of this transaction is no longer primarily about valuation or floor price, but about art historical status.
NODE's intervention brings CryptoPunks into a more traditional cultural narrative: permanent collection, academic research, art curation... These words sound more like the responsibilities of MoMA or the British Museum, rather than daily discussions in the crypto community.
In fact, the trend of NFTs moving towards "museumification" has long existed. In 2023, Autoglyphs was collected and exhibited by London's Serpentine Gallery; Fidenza and Ringers began to be categorized by curatorial institutions as representatives of the "generative art movement"; Beeple's "Everydays" became the starting point for NFT "museum entry" after being sold at Christie's for $69 million.
From this perspective, NODE's appearance is a gentle arrangement. It does not try to "empower" CryptoPunks or change its original appearance, but instead incorporates it into an institutional art protection trajectory. If the buyer had been a commercial company, its operational logic would likely have been IP licensing, commercial collaborations, and traffic monetization - approaches that might bring short-term benefits but could potentially dissolve CryptoPunks' symbolic status as a digital native cultural marker.
However, a new question arises: What is the next narrative for NFTs?
NODE stated in its announcement: "This is not a transfer of ownership, but a liberation." As CryptoPunks becomes old money and a "museum piece", we may be witnessing NFTs slowly turning from a high-volatility financial experiment to a low-frequency cultural form. And CryptoPunks' transformation is like a mirror, reflecting the industry's anxiety.
