CryptoPunks

CryptoPunks is a collection of 10,000 algorithmically generated pixel art characters, minted for free on the Ethereum blockchain in June 2017 by the two-person studio Larva Labs, founded by Matt Hall and John Watkinson. Each 24x24 pixel image draws from a fixed pool of traits, human, ape, zombie, or alien, along with accessories, with rarer types commanding far higher prices than the base human punks.

The project predates the term "NFT" itself. Larva Labs adapted the fungible ERC-20 token format to represent unique, non-interchangeable assets on-chain, an approach that helped shape the later ERC-721 standard used across the NFT market. Anyone with an Ethereum wallet could originally claim a punk for the cost of gas alone; it took roughly a week for all 10,000 to be claimed, and the collection then sat largely dormant through the 2018 to 2020 downturn before the 2021 NFT boom turned it into one of the most valuable digital art collections in the world.

Ownership carries no built-in utility beyond the artwork itself, so value is driven almost entirely by scarcity, provenance, and cultural status within the NFT community, often tracked through a collection's floor price. In March 2022, Yuga Labs, the studio behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, acquired the CryptoPunks intellectual property from Larva Labs and later extended full commercial rights to individual holders. That IP changed hands again in 2025, passing to the nonprofit Infinite Node Foundation, which now oversees the collection's long-term preservation.

CryptoPunks is widely credited with establishing the profile-picture, or "PFP," format that later defined much of the NFT collectible market.