Yuga Labs may sell the intellectual property rights for CryptoPunks to an unnamed bidder

Yuga Labs may be in the process of selling the intellectual property rights to the Crypto Punks collection. The top NFT collection became the property of Yuga Labs in 2022, retaining its status as an exclusive club. 

Rumors are circulating about an eventual buyer of intellectual property rights for the Crypto Punks collection. Yuga Labs, the Bored Apes producer, acquired the Punks collection rights in 2022. They have yet to comment on the potential rights sale. The company also retains the rights to Meebits, which it acquired in addition to the Punks intellectual property rights.

Yuga Labs has issued or acquired 26 NFT collections, including exclusive top collections and more accessible ones, with a floor price as low as 0.01 ETH. Punks are still the leaders, with a floor price of 41.47 ETH. The rumors also led to a new prediction market on Myriad, where the prevalent bet is that the IP rights will not be sold before January 23.

An advisor to Moca Network mentioned the possibility that a still unknown buyer would acquire the rights to the collection. The potential buyer is not a traditional Internet corporation or any of the other collection startups, such as Pudgy Penguins. The new owner may keep the collection untouched, retaining the rare history of NFT. 

The other suggestion is that the buyer may be a community of NFT enthusiasts who want to retain the CryptoPunks IP rights for preserving the collection’s history. One possible buyer is a top NFT collector known as @seedphrase, who recently posted a message about CryptoPunks and interacted with other tweets related to the rumors. 

CryptoPunks ❤️

— seedphrase (@seedphrase) January 14, 2025

The collector owns one of the top Punks NFTs, #8348, which was used as collateral for a record loan of 2.75M USDC. There is still no confirmation on buying the Punks’ IP rights, and there are additional fake rumors of potential buyers. For now, the move is considered a part of the NFT culture, with little practical value. 

Punks started off as the property of Larva Labs. The collection was distributed freely to ETH holders and was limited to 10,000 NFT. Initially, Larva Labs retained the rights to each image. Later, Yuga Labs changed its approach by giving each individual NFT holder the IP rights to the image they bought. 

This allowed some owners to use their Apes or other images for physical items or content. Punks also spread to other chains, with variations in the images. Most holders did nothing with their IP rights. The collection gained additional fame after becoming one of the few NFTs to be offered on Sotheby’s auctions, besides the OpenSea market. 

Punks floor price rises after rumors of IP sale

The NFT market immediately reacted to the rumors around the ownership of the Punks IP rights. The collection’s floor price immediately rallied to a one-month high, from around 34 ETH to over 41 ETH. 

The collection saw 30 sales in the past 24 hours, a sudden spike in activity after months of relatively few Punks changing hands. Only 4,127 users hold the collection, which they have held tightly during the bear market. 

Punks remain ahead of Pudgy Penguins, which retain a floor price of around 27 ETH. The collection is valued at over $1.3B, surpassing other top items. 

The separation of IP rights from NFT ownership raises questions about where the value of the collection rests. Currently, there are multiple Punks derivatives on almost all networks. However, the original owners of rare airdropped Punks retain their valuable items. 

The 2024 bull market had a limited effect on NFT, as the narrative was largely forgotten. Top collections retained some activity, though with suspicions of wash trading. NFT activity has also shifted to Solana, leaving Ethereum with valuable but relatively illiquid collections. 

Enthusiasts are still trying to retain parts of the NFT culture with a mix of Web3 activities and physical merch based on top collections. Crypto Punks has also taken a similar route by publishing a luxury book that will be distributed during a live event on January 30 in New York.

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