CryptoPunks has changed hands again, and Ribbit Capital is the backstage funder. Can we usher in new development opportunities?

Author: Zen, PANews

CryptoPunks, the founder of NFT, officially changed hands again after being sold to Yuga Labs, a developer of boring apes.

On the evening of May 13, NFT and crypto art iconic work CryptoPunks officially changed hands - a foundation called Infinite Node ("NODE") acquired it from Yuga Labs. Although the terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, according to media NFT Now, citing several people familiar with the matter, NODE paid about US$20 million for the acquisition. Affected by this news, the floor price of CryptoPunks also rose from 42 ETH to 47.5 ETH.

CryptoPunks and the new "home" NODE

"The Origin of NFT" CryptoPunks was launched by Larva Labs in 2017 and is widely regarded as a catalyst for the modern digital art movement. Larva Labs is a creative technology company founded by Matt Hall and John Watkinson. Thanks to the importance and far-reaching influence of CryptoPunks, the cumulative transaction volume exceeds US$3.07 billion, which also makes these two creators among the best-selling living artists.

In March 2022, Larva Labs transferred the intellectual property rights of CryptoPunks and another work, Meebits, to Yuga Labs. Three years later, CryptoPunks changed hands again and settled in his new home NODE.

Yuga co-founder Wylie Aronow (aka “Gordon Goner”) commented: “We have always been committed to elevating and protecting their cultural heritage, but we always understand that Punks need a permanent home to pass on. Seeing this vision come true with the help of the Node Foundation feels like returning to the original starting point. They are most capable of protecting Punks’ cultural heritage.”

Founded by Ribbit Capital founders Micky Malka and Becky Kleiner, the NODE Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation, research and exhibition of digital art. It aims to enhance the status of the Internet’s native artwork and integrate it into a wider range of cultural and academic discussions.

In April, the NODE Foundation announced a $25 million grant from Malka and Kleiner to advance their vision for the future of digital art. The organization calls itself a “sustainable fund, mission-driven” and said the acquisition “opens up a new model for protecting the native Internet culture.”

Open up the mainstream art

Even though CryptoPunks' sales exceed all living contemporary artists, it has never been ranked in the traditional art rankings and has not entered the mainstream discourse system. NODE believes that solving this cultural fault requires first redefining the way digital art experiences.

“Our goal is to build a networked architecture that allows digital art such as CryptoPunks to flourish in the digital field and incorporate into the grand narrative of art history.” NODE said it will continue and carry forward the spirit of Punk and achieve it through three pillars:

• Save: Relying on advanced blockchain infrastructure, ensure the technical integrity and long-term availability of CryptoPunks;

• Community: Building an active ecology that connects digital innovators and art enthusiasts;

• Extension: Create new scenarios that allow CryptoPunks to be used as examples of technological innovation and as artistic achievements.

NODE plans to build a permanent exhibition hall in Palo Alto to display all 10,000 CryptoPunks. The exhibition hall will also run full Ethereum nodes to improve the accessibility and sustainability of the collected works. “With museum-level preservation and a sustainable endowment, we aim to build future-oriented assurance for this landmark work and make it easier for scholars, curators and collectors to interact with it,” said Micky Malka.

To achieve the above goals, NODE has formed an advisory board with members of the CryptoPunks community and crypto arts celebrities, including Matt Hall and John Watkinson, Wylie Aronow, and Art Blocks founder Erick Calderon (also known as "Snowfro"), and will hire Natalie Stone as a consultant to the NODE team during the transition period to manage the project.

Protecting the fundamentals of culture

After the acquisition announcement was released, the community generally interpreted it as a favorable factor. As a result, CryptoPunks' floor price also rose from 42 ETH to 47.5 ETH.

“It’s undoubtedly good news for punk,” CryptoPunks holder @VonMises14 expressed high praise for the acquisition, believing that “this means that the punks IP has found its “end point” where it can grow and grow without any kind of monetization or corruption.”

Since some blue-chip NFTs "self-destructed the Great Wall" and CryptoPunks have also had experiences of being almost "polluted", the Punks community is particularly concerned about brand value and cultural purity.

A year ago, Yuga Labs launched the Super Punk World NFT series based on CryptoPunks. This move was strongly opposed and criticized by the community. Most people believe that the excessive "awakening culture" displayed by Super Punk World seriously deviates from the core of punk's original work, and many people even bluntly say that Yuga Labs is destroying Punks. After strong opposition, Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano immediately said: "We will no longer touch CryptoPunks, we will only decentralize and retain it on the blockchain," and said that we plan to support museums and institutions to promote the original work to the public.

However, protecting the cultural value of CryptoPunks as a work of art may also require controlling the way they are used, copied or monetized. As @jabrathelawyer, a lawyer focusing on the Web3 field, pointed out: "If NODE follows the traditional "cultural protection strategy", it is not difficult to imagine a new restriction: Will the freedom of punk commercialization be reduced? Will the control of derivative projects be stricter? Will the restrictions be imposed in the name of "cultural integrity"?"

Yuga Labs once granted IP rights and commercialization licenses to NFT holders immediately after obtaining CryptoPunks, allowing them to freely create, display and monetize at the personal and commercial level. After this acquisition, it is still unknown whether NODE will retain these commercial rights.

Having said that, this is probably not the focus of the punk community's concerns. For them, perhaps the best choice is not to bother.