CryptoPunks: The Original NFTs That Changed Blockchain History
When you think of CryptoPunks, a collection of 10,000 unique pixel-art characters issued on the Ethereum blockchain in 2017. Also known as Larva Labs Punks, they weren’t meant to be a financial asset—they were a tech experiment. But they became the first NFTs to explode in value, setting the standard for everything that came after. CryptoPunks didn’t just introduce digital ownership—they proved that something purely virtual could hold real-world scarcity and status.
They run on Ethereum, the blockchain that enabled smart contracts and decentralized applications, which made it possible to verify who owns each Punk without a middleman. Unlike later NFTs that rely on flashy art or utility tokens, CryptoPunks have no extra features. No games. No staking. Just 10,000 unique faces, each with different traits like hats, glasses, or zombie skin. That simplicity is why they still matter. They’re the original digital collectibles, and their rarity rules—only 9 alien, 24 ape, and 88 female Punks—still drive prices in the millions.
Digital collectibles, items with verifiable ownership on a blockchain didn’t exist as a mainstream idea until CryptoPunks. Before them, people traded virtual items in games, but those were locked inside platforms. CryptoPunks broke that. You could own one, sell it, or show it off anywhere. That idea sparked a wave of NFT projects, from Bored Apes to generative art collections. But none of them had the history. None of them were the first. And that’s why they’re still the benchmark.
Today, CryptoPunks are more than art. They’re a cultural symbol. Owning one means you were there at the start. They’ve been worn in virtual worlds, auctioned by Sotheby’s, and even used as profile pictures by celebrities and CEOs. But behind the headlines, they’re still just code on Ethereum—code that proved digital scarcity works. That’s the real legacy.
Below, you’ll find real reviews, scam alerts, and deep dives into projects that tried to copy what CryptoPunks built. Some succeeded. Most failed. All of them are part of the same story—how NFTs went from a weird experiment to a global phenomenon, and why most of them still can’t match the original.