Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have been around for quite some time now. However, though, just a small percentage of people own an NFT. According to Finder.com, out of 329.5 million US residents, only 9.25 million currently own an NFT. That is only about 2.8% of the population. This means that the world is yet to begin the implementation of such technology.
Because only a very small percentage of people are familiar with NFTs, buying them is not as easy as buying any other cryptocurrency. Just some years ago, there were only 2-3 NFT marketplaces available. Some of the first NFT marketplaces were OpenSea (2017), Rarible (2020), and Super Rare (2017). This limited the options that people had when it came to exploring and joining the NFT world. However, as the NFT space gets more users, the marketplaces work on improving themselves. As a result, we now can buy an NFT with ease.
Currently, OpenSea is the biggest NFT marketplace by trading volume. To be more exact, OpenSea accounts for nearly 90% of all the traded volume in this space. Therefore, most old projects continue to operate on their platform and thousands of new projects join the platform each month. One of the first-ever NFT collections was the CryptoPunks collection. Today, you can find this collection listed exclusively on OpenSea.
How to Get CryptoPunks?
As stated above, you can find the CryptoPunks collection in OpenSea. The official minting of the collection took place on the LarvaLabs website back in 2017. Initially, you could claim a CryptoPunk for free only for linking your MetaMask wallet to Larva Labs. Today, however, it is nearly impossible to buy a CryptoPunk under a floor price of Ξ66.7 (~$266,000). All people had to do to claim a CryptoPunk was literally create a MetaMask wallet.
Buying a CryptoPunk is as easy as buying any other NFT listed in OpenSea. Although OpenSea has been under pressure for its slow services lately, they still are the leading Ethereum NFT marketplace. Through OpenSea, buying this NFT can be done in four steps:
Step 1: Create a MetaMask Wallet
The first step towards buying an NFT such as a CryptoPunk is creating a MetaMask wallet. Fundamentally, the MetaMask wallet is an Ethereum wallet. However, recent updates have made it compatible with several networks. To create a MetaMask wallet, all you have to do is install the MetaMask browser extension and begin the process.
Step 2: Buy Ethereum (ETH)
After creating the MetaMask wallet, we are ready to buy Ethereum. Since the CryptoPunks collection operates on the Ethereum blockchain, you can only buy them using ETH. Buying Ethereum is easy since this cryptocurrency is listed in nearly every exchange out there. For this example, we will use Binance. First off, you must first create a Binance account, verify that account, fund it, and then use those funds to buy Ethereum.
Step 3: Buy a CryptoPunk
Now that you are done with buying Ethereum, you are all set to purchase a CryptoPunk. There is one more little detail you should take care of before doing that, however. After buying Ethereum in Binance or any other exchange, you must send that Ethereum to your MetaMask wallet. Now that you funded your wallet, go to opensea.io, search for CryptoPunks, and select the CryptoPunk you want to buy. Now, simply check whether you can afford the gas fees. If everything is as it should simply click on ”Buy” once again. Currently, though, there are no CryptoPunks up for sale.
Takeaways
- Only a small fraction of US citizens are familiar with Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
- Rarible, Super Rare, and OpenSea are some of the first NFT marketplaces in the industry.
- One of the most valuable NFT collections is the CryptoPunks collection. These NFTs were minted in 2017 and many of them were given for free to MetaMask users. Today, the cheapest CryptoPunk is sitting above $250,000.
- At the time of writing, you can only buy a CryptoPunk in OpenSea. There also exists the possibility of trading a CryptoPunk off-platform, however, that is risky.
- To buy a CryptoPunk you need to follow these steps: create a MetaMask wallet, create a Binance/KuCoin/Gate.io account, buy Ethereum, send it to your MetaMask wallet, use that wallet to buy a CryptoPunk.