Web3 Watch: Someone bought a CryptoPunk for $16M, again

Plus, Changpeng Zhao debuts his next venture and SLERF gets burnt

article-image

CryptoPunks modified by Blockworks

share

Two weeks after a CryptoPunks NFT sold for $16 million, a punk has sold for $16 million once again. 

Punk #7084, which changed hands for $16.42 million on Wednesday, is one of nine blueish-skinned alien punks, which are the collection’s most highly-coveted pieces. It narrowly topped the other alien punk that sold this month to become the second-largest CryptoPunk sale ever.  

Read more: Someone bought a CryptoPunk for $16M

The sale appears to have been directly brokered between buyer and seller. 

The punk’s apparent seller, known on X as Peruggia, said he “felt like an imposter” owning punk #7084 without “elevating” the collectible. 

“After over a year of looking around I feel I’ve found the right buyer with the right vision to appropriately elevate this asset,” Peruggia added. Peruggia walks away with quite the windfall, having acquired the NFT for $7.57 million in 2021. 

“Legend,” Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz replied.

First minted in 2017, CryptoPunks were ascendent during the NFT craze of 2021 and remain popular today. The cheapest punk on offer from the 10,000-piece set costs $166,242, and it’s the largest NFT collection by market capitalization, according to NFT Price Floor. 

Changpeng Zhao’s education initiative uses soulbound tokens

As former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao awaits sentencing for money laundering charges in the US, he’s already announced his first post-Binance venture. 

Read more: Judge orders former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao to ‘surrender’ Canadian passport

Zhao is launching Giggle Academy, a project focused on bringing free basic education to all, he announced via X this week. He added he is hiring for what will be a small team working directly with Zhao. 

Zhao released a “concept brainstorm” for the project dated February 2024 in which he says the Giggle Academy won’t have a native token but will use soulbound tokens — essentially non-transferable NFTs — to certify students’ progress on the platform. 

One interesting stat:

  • $122.5 million-worth of Solana (SOL) tokens were raised in 27 memecoin pre-sales tracked this week by on-chain sleuth ZachXBT.

Also of note:

  • Ghostface Killah, a member of the rap group Wu-Tang Clan, “put new exclusive music on bitcoin” as Ordinal inscriptions. 
  • A developer behind the meme coin SLERF accidentally burnt $10 million worth of pre-sale tokens. The developer’s mea culpa went viral on X, and SLERF ballooned to roughly $300 million in market capitalization this week, per CoinGecko.
  • MOONS, the former native token of the r/Cryptocurrency subreddit, was up on Thursday as Reddit debuted favorably on the stock market.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (19).png

Research

Suilend has grown into the top money market and liquid staking provider on Sui. STEAMM, Suilend’s Superfluid AMM, presents a compelling avenue for growing market share within Sui’s DEX landscape and revenue generation for the protocol. Suilend’s multi-product suite position it well for owning market share across key verticals. While current metrics across the Sui ecosystem are likely inflated due to Sui Foundation incentive programs, SEND trades at amongst the lowest multiples in the lend/borrow sector, suggesting that a bull case for continued growth in the ecosystem may be mispriced.

article-image

Decentralized money was a “very unpopular goal” when concepts were proposed in the ’90s, said Nick Szabo

article-image

Cove aims to deliver “risk-adjusted yield” through curated DeFi vaults

article-image

The best capital markets are open to the most people — and crypto capital markets are open to everyone

article-image

Post-conference musings on Firedancer, Kraken, Solana Mobile and Trump

article-image

Executives expect others to follow SharpLink Gaming’s lead in purchasing an asset that has surged this past month

article-image

After a weekend of tariff policy shifts, investors appear confident that trade deals are underway