Visa buys CryptoPunk NFT for $150,000, sparking buzz around the project

On August 18, the payments company Visa acquired the non-fungible token (NFT) CryptoPunk #7610 for 49.5 ETH — about $150,000 at the time of sale.

Kai Sheffield, head of the company’s cryptocurrency division, told The Block that the collection is ‘historic’ and the NFT technology is the future of commerce and entertainment.

The head of the company’s cryptocurrency division explained that Visa bought the token with fiat through Anchorage, a crypto-bank. He said, “this is just the beginning.”

“We thought that CryptoPunks would nicely complement our collection of artefacts through which one can trace the past, present and future of commerce,” said Sheffield.

On August 23, within an hour the Larva Labs team sold more than 60 CryptoPunks from the project. Each token was valued at more than $200,000.

The CryptoPunks collection of 10,000 NFT images, each 24-by-24-pixel, was released in 2017. Initially, many of the project’s non-fungible tokens were distributed for free.

Earlier, NFT CryptoPunk #3860 sold for less than $0.01 due to an error. The lucky winner walked away with more than $75,000.

Back in June, Sotheby’s sold the ‘COVID-era’ NFT CryptoPunk #7523 for $11.8 million.

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