MoonPay Buys CryptoPunk For $3M Worth of ETH

MoonPay – a fintech payment infrastructure provider – recently bought a zombie-themed CryptoPunk for over $3 million. The company often operates as a middleman for celebrity NFT purchases, leaving many to speculate which high-profile figure is behind the buy.

• Yesterday at 11:52pm UTC, MoonPay purchased the NFT for 900 ETH. With ETH worth $3,406.48 at the time, that’s a $3,065,832 buy.
• MoonPay released a tweet shortly afterward promoting followers to “guess” who the purchase was for. Fan predictions ranged from NBA players to Gordon Ramsey.
• The NFT – CryptoPunk #2681 – is just one of 88 available ‘zombie’ punks, making it especially valuable to collectors. The punk’s last major sale came from maxand98 for 277 ETH, which was $542,219.19 at the time.
• In November, Jimmy Fallon –host of The Tonight Show – revealed that he bought a Bored Ape NFT through MoonPay. Post Malone made a similar move the same month.
• To kickoff 2022, Eminem also purchased a Bored Ape for over $400k. The popular collection has generated over $1 billion in sales on OpenSea.
• NFTs are not only becoming a popular cultural icon among such artists, but also a tool for generating revenue. For example, Nas plans to sell the ownership rights for two of his songs through NFTs, from which he and other owners will profit from their use.