Gary Vaynerchuk on How He Bought 59 CryptoPunks

“A lot of people have the majority of their net worth tied up in their tokens. That scares the piss out of me,” Vaynerchuk said.

article-image

Gary Vaynerchuk via his blog on Medium

share
  • Vaynerchuk, who spoke at 321 Blast Off: NYC, told attendees that when investing in NFTs people should do more research on the projects they’re interested in
  • “The biggest thing that helps me in the beginning is seeking out the counterpoint to my own point of view,” he said.

Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, was an early investor in technology giants like Facebook, Venmo and Twitter. Now, the media mogul is bullish on non-fungible tokens (NFTs), owning over a 1,000 of the crypto assets, including 59 CryptoPunks, as of press time.

Vaynerchuk, who spoke at 321 Blast Off: NYC, told attendees that when investing in NFTs people should do more research on the projects they’re interested in, specifically the founders and buildings, instead of having solely “their own financial interests in mind.”

“What I don’t think people understand is that if the founders of the project are unable to continue to build success, people will become bandwagon fans, and they will sell their token and go join another community,” Vaynerchuk said. 

“And I think people are supporting projects where they don’t even know the founders’ names, let alone capable of building a property. So I think there’s an enormous amount of carnage coming and the amount of money that’s going to be lost, it’s going to be scary,” he added.

About those 59 CryptoPunks

Vaynerchuk said prior to buying he “really did a lot of homework” and then “spent the next 72 hours [reading up] on the anti-punk point of view.”

To date, he has invested $32.6 million in those 59 CryptoPunks.

“The biggest thing that helps me, in the beginning, is seeking out the counterpoint to my own point of view,” he said. 

Ape Punk 2140 owned by Vaynerchuk

“I would actively search Twitter for the counterpoint of view. Because I think what ends up happening is people buy something they like — and then it almost becomes an echo chamber,” Vaynerchuk said. 

Additionally, he recommended investors diversify their cryptocurrency portfolios, adding that “a lot of people have the majority of their net worth tied up in their tokens [and] that scares the piss out of me.”

“Don’t let your short-term financial arbitrage be the foundation of your point of view,” Vaynerchuk said.

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.

recent research

Research Report Templates (1).png

Research

Aave’s revenues have doubled from April lows and are fast approaching all-time highs. With 35% of borrow interest coming from ETH and 55% from stablecoins, Aave is emerging as a powerful proxy as an ETH and stablecoin beta. As looping strategies accelerate growth and Horizon positions the protocol to ride the RWA wave, Aave is shaping up as one of DeFi’s most compelling multi-narrative plays.

article-image

Private testnet aims to deliver low-cost settlement with partners including Visa, Deutsche Bank, and OpenAI

by Blockworks /
article-image

Solana saw $78 million in REV for August

article-image

Lit Protocol’s Vincent is shifting agentic finance from toy demos to production rails

article-image

The new system aims to unify Europe’s fragmented tokenized asset settlement and cut cross-border costs

by Blockworks /
article-image

Tron slashed fees by 60% as Plasma looms, threatening its USDT moat

article-image

The acquisition adds evaluation-based funding to Kraken Pro, giving traders access to capital on performance

by Blockworks /