In August, this digital image, called “CryptoPunk, #2338,” sold for 1,500 ether (ETH), worth $4,379,924.93 at the time…
Essentially, it’s a picture of a guy with a mohawk.
It’s one of a series of 10,000 “CryptoPunk” NFTs, each depicting a unique, randomly generated character. The images were developed by Matt Hall and John Watkinson from the mobile game company Larva Labs.
NFTs (short for non-fungible tokens) are digital tokens that allow you to trade all types of assets… and many have been exploding in value. In fact, CryptoPunk NFTs were initially given away for free.
And the last time CryptoPunk #2338 changed hands, back in November 2018, it sold for just 3.5 ETH, worth $443.
That means this digital caricature handed its previous owner a 988,596% return in less than three years.
To put that figure into context, consider that over its first 39 years as a public company – from its IPO in 1982 through 2021 – Apple’s shares rose a little more than 98,000%.
So, a crudely drawn digital image went up roughly 10 times more than one of the greatest corporate success stories in history… in one-thirteenth the time.
And as you can see from the chart above, it also trounced the returns of other tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft in a much shorter time span.
Yet this isn’t an isolated incident. Nor is it the most extreme example.
One CryptoPunk sold for $5.3 million on August 24… Another sold for $5.44 million back in July… And two others sold in March for more than $7 million apiece…
And recently, CryptoPunk #7523 went for a staggering $11.8 million, a new highwater mark for CryptoPunk pricing.
It sounds like sheer madness, right?
Like a virtual Beanie Baby craze or the digital version of the “Tulip Mania” from the 1600s – one of the biggest market bubbles in history.
That’s definitely what I thought when I first started seeing these numbers.
But then, I dug a little deeper. And a few weeks later, I invested some of my own money in a CryptoPunk – currently valued at $559,800.
Because once I understood who’s been buying these CryptoPunks… Why they’re buying them… And most importantly, how they intend to use them…
I realized this is just the beginning of a whole new world of 10x, 100x, and 1,000x winners.
The sooner you grasp what’s happening, and the sooner you get involved as an investor, the better.
In just a moment, I’ll tell you how you can invest in NFTs like CryptoPunks for less than $10.
But first, you have to understand the real reason CryptoPunk prices are going through the roof…
A Digital Playground of the Rich and Famous
The CryptoPunk craze is just one small part of a greater trend known as the “metaverse.”
If you’re not familiar with the metaverse, here’s a short description: It encompasses all types of virtual worlds many of us already use… video games… eSports… social media… digital collectibles… cryptocurrencies… and NFTs like CryptoPunks.
And here at PBRG, we believe the metaverse will become the next multitrillion-dollar trend in technology.
It sounds like a science fiction story, but the metaverse is a virtual world… intimately connected to our real world… where just about anything is possible.
Some of our daily activities already contain shades of a metaverse future.
For example, do you have any online-only “friends” through a social media platform – people you haven’t met in person but who feel familiar?
That idea of a real personal connection without physical contact is laying the groundwork for a completely virtual world where people meet, interact, and have genuine relationships… maybe only as avatars of their real-life selves.
This is precisely why wealthy individuals are already bidding up prices for CryptoPunks, NFT artworks, and other similar assets.
And CryptoPunks are believed to be some of the very first NFTs ever created on the Ethereum blockchain.
So, although they are digital pictures, they are the original, authentic versions of those images with documented blockchain ownership.
In the future, owning an NFT will be much like owning the fanciest car in town or a great domain name during the early stages of the commercial Internet.
Consider the $11.8 million CryptoPunk purchase I mentioned above… The buyer was Shalom Meckenzie, the largest shareholder of sports-betting company DraftKings. As he told Decrypt:
I really wanted this particular CryptoPunk. It is part of the alien collection, which is the rarest of the punks, and the only alien that has a mask. I thought it was symbolic of Covid and the popularization of NFTs.
Meanwhile, the most expensive NFT to date – digital artwork by Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann – recently sold for $69.3 million. That’s more than physical paintings by Andy Warhol or Pablo Picasso.
Buyer Vignesh Sundaresan said he purchased the work to show “that crypto was an equalizing power between the West and the Rest.”
It’s not hard to picture the day when this particular artwork will “hang” in Sundaresan’s virtual office or maybe at a virtual museum inside the metaverse.
So even if much of this still sounds abstract, it makes sense to get involved immediately – especially after what we’ve seen during past technological breakthroughs.
Remember how unbelievable a fully evolved internet sounded back in 1995?
Or how crazy smartphones were when they first launched?
Or how skeptical everyone was about cryptos when we first started recommending them in 2016?
Make no mistake: The metaverse will create opportunities that are just as big as any of those other technological revolutions.
In a follow-up article tomorrow, we’ll talk more about some of those commercial opportunities.
For now, let’s start with…
How to Invest in NFTs for as Little as $10
In other Daily articles, I’ve discussed the idea of fractional investing – a way to get partial ownership of million-dollar cars, mansions, and other trophy assets.
Well, now you can also do the same thing for digital trophy assets like CryptoPunks.
For example, the Rally platform recently began offering access to NFTs.
Its very first NFT offering on September 17 was for CryptoPunk #9670.
Then, on September 21, the platform began offering access to another CryptoPunk – #8103 – with an asset value of $559,800. This is how I decided to take my first step into the world of NFTs – by making a relatively small investment in this offering.
Demand was incredible… and the entire offering was filled within an hour or so.
Going forward, Rally plans to continue expanding its NFT offerings.
According to co-founder and chief product officer Rob Petrozzo, NFTs are now a “true asset class and a real collectible.”
Just remember that NFTs are highly speculative. By definition, each is entirely unique. Any given NFT could easily plunge in value or experience a meteoric jump. You shouldn’t invest any amount of money you can’t afford to lose.
Also, remember that NFTs are not the metaverse. They are just one small aspect of this larger trend.
Tomorrow, I’ll explain why that is and introduce you to a few other simple ways to invest in the metaverse.
Best wishes,
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Nilus Mattive
Analyst, Palm Beach Daily
P.S. Longtime readers know Daily editor Teeka Tiwari’s been covering blockchain investments as far back as 2016… and the expanding metaverse is a huge piece of the blockchain puzzle.
This past month, subscribers to Teeka’s Palm Beach Letter service heard even more about CryptoPunk #2338… along with two new ways to play the metaverse trend… and you still have time to join them.
To learn more about how blockchain investments like NFTs will be the catalyst behind the biggest shift of wealth and power in modern history… click here.