Why Are CryptoPunks Really Worth Millions of Dollars? - The NFT Origin Story and Beginnings Of The Metaverse

The NFT space and wider metaverse appears to be in the middle of another extreme hype cycle. Credible OG projects such as The CryptoPunks are selling for upwards of $13 million each, it looks like we might see the first $1 million sale of a Bored Ape Yacht Club avatar soon and EtherRocks (yes pictures of rocks) are selling for $100,000.

To spot future opportunities and understand where NFTs and the metaverse are going next, it's always a good idea to look back into history at the origins of the space. More often than not, the themes of successful projects from the past can give us good clues as to what is likely to be successful in the future. 

This isn't a boring NFT history lesson, but rather a look at why a pixelated jpeg of a CryptoPunk may justifiably be worth 10's of millions of dollars and what the next phase of this space is likely to be. Hopefully this episode can also be a good place to send new friends and family who want a crash course on NFTs and the story so far. 

Thank you to a variety of authors who I learnt from in helping to put this episode together. Their articles are linked below.

As always, nothing in this episode is financial or investment advice, always do your own research.

For regular alerts on projects and writings in the space, head to metaverseluke.substack.com

In this episode we talk about :

- The current hype cycle of the NFT space, speculation as a natural part of adoption but also mini boom and bust cycles

- How understanding the history of an asset class (in this case NFTs and digital assets in the metaverse) can give a good indication of what's coming next

- A recap for newcomes on what an NFT is and why it can have value 

- Blockchain enabling entirely new digital asset classes and value creation

- The first ever NFT - Coloured Coins on Bitcoin in 2012

- The story of CounterParty and Rare Pepe the frog memes

- The creation of CryptoPunks and how they were all free!

- CryptoKitties introducing cute cat NFTs you can breed and how knowledge of this gave clues to Zed Run's success

- How CryptoKitties clogged up the Ethereum network

- The beginnings of Decentraland and early digital real estate

- Trading NFTs on secondary markets and OpenSea

- Mainstream adoption of NFTs, Beeple, Kings of Leon and the creative industry changing forever

- Clues for what comes next for the metaverse

- Spotlight on NFT projects I'm watching

Sources for this episode

Andrew Steinwold - https://medium.com/@Andrew.Steinwold/the-history-of-non-fungible-tokens-nfts-f362ca57ae10

Portion Blog - https://blog.portion.io/the-history-of-nfts-how-they-got-started/

CryptoVantage - https://www.cryptovantage.com/non-fungible-tokens/history-of-nfts/