The former owner of Ethereum CryptoPunk 3860 (ETH) made a huge mistake by selling it for less than $0.01. Because of this, an opportunist rushed to buy his work and then resell it at an astronomical price. One man’s loss is another man’s gain.
80,000 dollars of profit because of a bad manipulation
The mistake is human, but it can make the fortune of some. The owner of CryptoPunk 3860 bought at $69,360, on July 29, 2021, accidentally put it up for sale at 99 Gwei, or less than $0.01, on August 4, 2021. It is a male Punk, with a cigarette, big glasses, an ombre beard and a mohawk.
According to DeFi Float Capital platform co-founder Jonathan Clarck, the owner wanted to sell the Punk at a private sale, but mistakenly put it on an open market. Someone was quick to seize the opportunity. She went so far as to pay 22 ETH, or about $57,000 to a miner, using Flashboats, to ensure that her transaction was processed first.
For the record, Flashboats allows Ethereum users (ETH) and miners to communicate privately.
The new owner did not wait long to put the Punk 3860 up for sale. He sold it for 52 ETH ($136,000) thus making a profit of about $80,000.
Mistakes and regrets
Another CryptoPunks owner, known as “Stazie”, also made a mistake, 4 days earlier, which cost him his 16 Punks. On July 31, Stazie fell for a phishing attack asking for his seed phrase. The hacker then used it to access the wallet containing his NFTs.
These losses have a bitter taste considering the current value of CryptoPunks and the hype around them. According to CryptoSlam, the month of July 2021 saw 1,395 sales with a total value of $135 million. The average sale amount was around $100,000.
CryptoPunks has come a long way in its 4 years of existence. In their early days, they could be purchased for free on Larva Labs, paying only $8 in transaction fees. The pixelated avatars have since turned into works of art that command huge prices, including the Punk 7523 that sold for $11.8 million.
