Yuga Labs sells CryptoPunks IP

Infinite Node Foundation (NODE), a nonprofit focused on digital art, has acquired the intellectual property of the CryptoPunks non-fungible token (NFT) collection from Yuga Labs, NODE said in a May 13 announcement. 

The acquisition of CryptoPunks, plus its additional $25 million endowment, establishes NODE as “the most well-capitalized nonprofit dedicated solely to digital art in the United States,” the foundation said in an X post. 

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

The nonprofit said it has assembled an advisory board to oversee the CryptoPunks collection. It comprises Matt Hall and John Watkinson — the artists behind the NFT collection — and a representative of Yuga Labs, among others. 

“Our role is to build a networked architecture that allows digital art like CryptoPunks to thrive within both digital and art-historical canons,” NODE said. 

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Most valuable NFT collection

CryptoPunks are “algorithmically generated pixel art characters” that “changed the art world by existing outside of it and sparked a cultural shift that continues to reshape our digital world,” according to NODE.

It is the most valuable NFT collection, with a total market capitalization of nearly $1.2 billion across its 10,000 NFTs as of May 13, according to data from CoinGecko.

The CryptoPunks collection was launched in 2017 by Larva Labs, an NFT designer co-founded by Hall and Watkinson. 

Since then, the NFTs have clocked upward of $3 billion in sales, according to NODE. Each NFT sale creates royalties for the holders of the NFTs’ IP. 

In 2022, the highest-grossing CryptoPunk NFT sold for nearly $24 million, according to CryptoPunks’ website. The collection was purchased in 2022 by Yuga Labs, best known for designing the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection — the third-largest NFT collection by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko. 

Yuga simultaneously purchased Meebits, another Larva NFT collection, before selling it in February.

In March, Yuga Labs said the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) closed an investigation into the company in what it described as “a huge win for NFTs.”

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