OpenSea Establishes $1 Million NFT Reserve

The first purchase was CryptoPunk #5273.

The marketplace OpenSea has announced the creation of a $1 million reserve consisting of “culturally significant” non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Unveiling the OpenSea Flagship Collection.

A $1M+ cultural reserve committed to acquiring, curating, and celebrating digital art and culture.

Our first piece? CryptoPunk 5273.

More about the OpenSea Punk below. 👇 pic.twitter.com/fRNiVmjPdD

— OpenSea (@opensea) September 8, 2025

CryptoPunk #5273 became the platform’s first acquisition. According to on-chain data, the token was purchased on August 26 for 65 ETH (approximately $283,000 at the current rate) and was moved to another wallet on September 8.

“CryptoPunks were among the first NFTs on Ethereum. 10,000 pixelated characters that inspired an entire cultural movement. Our OpenSea Punk perfectly embodies the essence of outsiders, hackers, creators,” the marketplace stated in a publication.

OpenSea will continue to purchase NFTs. The platform has created a dedicated page to track the portfolio.

NFT Landscape

According to CryptoSlam, in July and August, the non-fungible token sector showed signs of recovery: weekly volumes during this period ranged from $115.4 million to $170.5 million. However, in September, the trend slowed, and the figure dropped to $92 million.

Despite the summer recovery, various crypto exchanges, including Bybit and Kraken, as well as larger companies like GameStop, closed their NFT trading platforms.

In September, the British auction giant Christie’s joined them. According to Now Media, the organization will continue to sell digital art, but as part of a broader category of 20th and 21st-century art.

Christie’s consultant Fanny Lacoubay stated that the company’s actions may be related to the “current contraction of the art market.”

“Auction houses cannot justify the existence of an entire department if it generates less revenue than others, despite several recent successful sales,” she noted.

Currently, the only fully successful NFT segment is Telegram gifts. According to GiftStat, over the past month, the capitalization of this area nearly doubled—from 26.5 million TON to 50.9 million TON (from approximately $79 million to $159 million).

Partner at TVM Ventures Howard Peng highlighted the five largest sales of the past week.

📈 Top 5 sales by collections last week on the markets:

1/ Cozy Galaxy #1847 (https://t.co/GAk9RwCqBU) for $120,120 (purchased through GetGems

2/ Heart Locket #875 (https://t.co/91MWvWvtEq) for $41,272 (purchased through GetGems / @getgemsdotio

3/ Santa Hat #1… pic.twitter.com/RLmjUthQIl

— Howard | Build on Telegram 💎 (@0xHoward_Peng) September 9, 2025

• Cozy Galaxy #1847 — $120,120;
• Heart Locket #875 — $41,272;
• Santa Hat #1 — $10,780;
• Mighty Arm #918 — $9,548;
• Loot Bag #6026 — $9,237.

Back in July, the public company GameSquare acquired a CryptoPunk NFT for its treasury reserve for $5.15 million.