Key Takeaways
Although the eyes of the general public may have moved on from non-fungible tokens (NFTs) since the fad’s heyday of late 2021 and early 2022, people are still collecting these rights to links to pieces of individual digital art.
One of the biggest and most notorious NFT collections is crypto punks. One of the first collections to be released, it was in prime position to kickstart the NFT craze and, although interest in the images has waned overall, it has managed to maintain its position and its value in the face of legal threats against large parts of the crypto industry.
While the collection of non-fungible tokens does not have an official fungible token – that is, a regular cryptocurrency – linked to it, it has inspired token which aim to piggyback on the collection’s efforts.
One such token is the Unicly CryptoPunks Collection (UPUNK) cryptocurrency, which ostensibly bases its value on that of the collection.
But what are CryptoPunks and UPUNK? How do CryptoPunks and UPUNK work? Let’s see what we can find out, and also examine some of the CryptoPunks (UPUNK) price predictions that were being made as of 16 June 2023.
In 2017, Matt Hall and John Watkinson, the owners, founders and staff of Canadian computer studio Larva Labs decided to create their own digital art and put it on the blockchain.
Taking influence from the wider world of punk rock, they set an algorithm to create 10,000 unique images. These pieces of art could not be exchanged for another one that was identical, but different, making them non-fungible.
Moving forward to 2021, the world suddenly caught onto a craze for NFTs and CryptoPunks were one of the most popular ones out there, attracting attention and going for high prices.
They got the attention of the rich and famous, too, with owners including hip-hop stars Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg and Tennis legend Serena Williams.
In early 2022, the rights to the collection were sold for an undisclosed fee to Yuga Labs, the owners and creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection. Yuga Labs, in turn, gave CryptoPunks holders commercial rights to their NFTs.
Although UPUNK, which was created by blockchain studio Unicly, it derives its value from the price of CryptoPunks NFTs.
CryptoPunks is an NFT collection, with people able to buy, sell, and trade the rights to links to individual pieces of digital art. There are 10,000 CryptoPunks NFTs in total.
UPUNK , on the other hand, is a cryptocurrency. It takes its value from the fractionalization of a group of CryptoPunks NFTs.
These NFTs are locked in with a smart contract, a computer program that executes automatically when certain conditions are met.
Both CryptoPunks NFTs and the UPUNK crypto are based on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. This means that they are tokens, rather than coins.
If you ever see a reference to a CryptoPunks coin price prediction, know that it is wrong.
When examining an NFT collection’s price history, the most useful statistic to look at is the floor price, which is how much the cheapest NFT costs.
Remember that a freak price spike could impact the average price of the collection’s NFTs, and you should see why the floor price is a more useful metric.
For much of the first three years or so of CryptoPunks’ existence, it operated with a floor price of around 0.1 ETH.
It first broke past the 1 ETH mark in May 2020 and the following year, as NFTs became highly popular, it exploded, reaching 125 ETH in late August.
Although that still stands as a record price, it was able to maintain a notably high floor price and operated above the 50 ETH mark, with the brief exception of a crash to around 26 ETH in December, for much of the next nine months.
After that, a series of crypto crashes put people off NFTs and it dropped to below 50 ETH in May before recovering to 83.55 ETH in August before dropping back down.
In 2023, the floor price has been consistent, mostly hovering around the 50 ETH mark. Although there has been a slight drop of 3.75% in price over the last two weeks, from 52.95 ETH on 2 June to 50.95 ETH on 16 June, that should be put into the context of a crypto market that has lost more than 10% at the same time.
The UPUNK token has also lost value over the last couple of weeks or so, but has avoided the worst of what has happened to the coins and tokens targeted by the SEC.
On 5 June, it was worth $0.3043 and fell 13.5% to $0.02617 on 14 June. While it has recovered to $0.2685, that still represents an 11.75% drop since the first lawsuit was announced, slightly worse than the market average.
With all 250 million UPUNK in circulation, the token had a market cap of $6.7 million, making it the 857th largest crypto by that metric.
Making a price prediction for NFTs can be very tricky. There are a lot of different things to take into consideration, which means that it is hard to end up with a simple forecast figure, which is why CryptoPunks NFT collection floor price predictions are hard to come by..
You could argue a similar case for regular crypto price predictions, but there are fewer things to deal with when it comes to making them so, right now, it seems fitting to look at some of the UPUNK price predictions that were being made on 16 June 2023.
It is important to understand that price forecasts, especially ones for something as potentially volatile as cryptocurrency, are very often wrong, and that many longer-term crypto price predictions are made using an algorithm, which means that they can change at a moment’s notice.
In terms of a short-term CryptoPunks price prediction for 2023 went, CryptoPredictions.com said that UPUNK would reach $0.036 this month, before going on a slow decline to go to $0.035635 in October before recovering to close the year at $0.3584. In terms of other sites, DigitalCoinPrice said that the token could trade at $0.0555 this year, while PricePrediction.net said it would be worth $0.035.
Regarding a CryptoPunks price prediction for 2025, DigitalCoinPrice argued for UPUNK to trade at $0.0937, while PricePrediction.net said it would be worth $0.071. CryptoPredictions.com said the token would start the year at $0.0432, reach $0.0475 in June and close the year at $0.0527.
When it came to a more long-term CryptoPunks price prediction for 2030, PricePrediction.net argued that the token would reach an average of $0.48, while DigitalCoinPRice said it would trade at $0.28, and Bitnation said it would be worth $0.228.
Even if the wider craze for NFTs has long passed, CryptoPunks is still doing pretty well for itself.
It is the second largest collection with a market cap of 663,083 ETH. How much of a return on investment CryptoPunks can offer depends on a number of factors, including whether there can be some kind of NFT revival.
Regarding UPUNK, that is a bit more tricky, as it will have to negotiate an overwhelmingly bearish market when it is well outside the top 500 cryptos. As always, you will have to do your own research.
Nobody can say with any certainty what will happen to either the CryptoPunks NFT collection or the UPUNK crypto token. Although the UPUNK price predictions are broadly bullish, remember that they are likely to turn out to be wrong and that prices can, and do, go down as well as up.
Before you decide whether or not to invest in either CryptoPunks or UPUNK, you will need to do your research, not only on the collection and token, but on other related collections, coins and tokens, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club’s ApeCoin. You should also make sure that you never invest more money than you can afford to lose.
The CryptoPunks NFT collection consists of 10,000 individual NFTs.
Whether it does or not is somewhat ambiguous. While there is not an official CryptoPunks cryptocurrency, it has inspired the UPUNK token, which is designed to track the price of CryptoPunks NFTs.
The most expensive CryptoPunks NFT is CryptoPunk #5822, which sold for 8,000 ETH, or the equivalent of $23.7 million, to Chain CEO Deepak Thapliyal in February 2022.
Please note that the contents of this article are not financial or investing advice. The information provided in this article is the author’s opinion only and should not be considered as offering trading or investing recommendations. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information. The cryptocurrency market suffers from high volatility and occasional arbitrary movements. Any investor, trader, or regular crypto users should research multiple viewpoints and be familiar with all local regulations before committing to an investment.