Sotheby’s sold the COVID Alien CryptoPunk NFT for $11.8m

Founded in 1744, the auction house Sotheby’s set a world record by selling NFT CryptoPunk #7523, also known as the COVID Alien, for 4520 ETH ($11.8m at the time of the deal).

Moments ago in our #London saleroom, an extremely rare “Alien” CryptoPunk #7523 from the collection of @sillytuna sold for $11.8M as part of our #NativelyDigital NFT auction – setting a new world auction record for a single CryptoPunk. pic.twitter.com/PDVUSttI3o

— Sotheby’s (@Sothebys) June 10, 2021

The non-fungible token depicts an alien wearing a mask.

The previous owner of the COVID Alien, using the handle Sillytuna, acquired it in an off-exchange transaction. After the close of the auction, he tweeted: “NFTs are DEAD!”

4520 Eth for a cryptopunk.

NFTs are DEAD! pic.twitter.com/eEwTKYju2w

— Sillytuna 💯 (@sillytuna) June 10, 2021

He also hinted that he had already used part of the proceeds to purchase another artwork.

CryptoPunks — one of the first NFT collections on the Ethereum blockchain, released by software developer Larva Labs in 2017. The tokens are 24-by-24-pixel eight-bit images.

The previous record for the price of a single CryptoPunk was set in March 2021 by an anonymous user. He spent 4200 ETH ($7.5m at the time of the deal).

In May, nine CryptoPunks NFTs sold at Christie’s for almost $17m.

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