In the Sotheby\u2019s salesroom one evening in late February, fluorescent lights beamed down on the assembled crowd. A sea of spectators is not unusual for Sotheby\u2019s \u2014 the 278-year-old auction house typically hosts more than 600 sales per year \u2014 but this sale was different. It was the auction house\u2019s first-ever evening sale dedicated solely to NFTs.<\/p>\n

Sotheby\u2019s described the event, titled \u201cPunk it!,\u201d as \u201ca truly historic sale for an undeniably historic NFT project.\u201d It consisted of a single lot \u2014 104 CryptoPunks sold as an all-or-nothing bundle. Sotheby\u2019s estimated the bundle would go for $20\u201330 million, on par with sales of paintings by David Hockney or Jean-Michel Basquiat.<\/p>\n

To drum up interest, the auction house had thrown a series of events aimed at attracting prospective punk-buyers. There was a pre-auction dinner for VIP Punk holders and an afterparty with DJ Seedphrase, known for the enormous CryptoPunk headpiece he wears while playing sets. The campaign worked: the crowd on the day of the auction included Nicole Muniz, the CEO of Yuga Labs, as well as NFT influencer Andrew Wang and Nifty Gateway co-founders Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster.<\/p>\n