CryptoPunks transaction volume surged nearly 12 times in a week: rare versions sold for millions, but the market does not rely on ETH

Original Title: CryptoPunks Are Heating Back Up

Original Author: William M. Peaster, Bankless

Original Compilation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Abstract: Recently, the trading volume of CryptoPunks has surged, with two rare pieces selling for at least approximately 3.9 million dollars; unlike before, this time ETH remains well below its peak during the rise, and stablecoin transactions along with new lending and OTC infrastructure are also reshaping the trading structure.

The trading volume of CryptoPunks is skyrocketing, with rare "Holy Grail" pieces selling for millions again. Here’s everything you need to know.

In April this year, I wrote "Are NFTs Back," discussing the unexpected rebound of top Ethereum NFT series at that time. At the end of the article, I pointed out that ultimately what matters is the trading volume, not just the fluctuations in floor prices.

Fast forward to today, CryptoPunks is experiencing the beginning of a new surge in trading volume. Sales have exploded in recent weeks, with two of the rarest Punks selling for at least approximately 3.9 million dollars yesterday.

Additionally, a new layer of infrastructure has also been involved in this market: tools that did not exist in previous cycles are now being used for collateral lending, brokerage matching, buying, and redistribution with Punks. However, this rebound also has some intriguing quirks that we will unpack.

Surge in Trading Volume

Last week, from September 19 to September 26, according to CryptoSlam statistics, Punks achieved approximately 8.2 million dollars in unwrapped trading volume, making it the top-selling NFT series. This is about 11.7 times the previous week.

What was the trigger? Around September 23, there was a wave of buying: buyers reportedly swept in approximately 63 Punks for about 6 million dollars, raising the floor price from about 29 ETH to about 34 ETH in about two days.

Putting this pulse into a larger context: over the past four weeks, only counting unwrapped Punk transactions in the official Punks market, a total of approximately 4,490 ETH (about 12 million dollars) in sales was recorded. In other words, about half of that occurred in the days around the September 23 buying spree.

As for the floor price, it remains much calmer. Currently around 33 ETH (approximately 89,000 dollars), it has risen about 31% since January 1, but is still about 39% lower than the approximately 54 ETH reached at the end of July 2025. In other words, at least for now, NFTs are moving faster than prices.

Major Rare Sales

Yesterday, on October 1, two of the rarest Punks were sold for USDC in about 12 hours, both completed through GONDI—this popular NFT lending platform allows borrowers to sell NFTs that have been used as collateral for loans and repay their debts in a single transaction.

The first sale was Punk #8348, the only Punk with seven attributes, sold for 3 million USDC plus an undisclosed amount, setting a record for the largest single transaction in GONDI's history. The seller, seedphrase, has held it since 2020 and stated that this was an offer he "could not refuse."

The second sale was Punk #3609, one of the 88 sought-after zombie Punks, sold for 875,000 USDC, equivalent to about 326 ETH at the time; the transaction was facilitated by Canon Punks founder Eli Scheinman.

Notably, both Punks were traded in the form of wrapped CryptoPunks 721 tokens, and buyers paid in USDC rather than ETH.

Additionally, neither transaction threatened the series record—namely, Alien #5822's sale for 8,000 ETH in 2022; the price of #3609 was actually lower than the 440 ETH it fetched in May 2025, reminding people that rare pieces do not only appreciate.

New Market "Pipeline"

Punks were born in 2017, at a time when the ERC-721 NFT standard did not exist, so for many years they primarily traded on their built-in market priced in ETH. Today, a whole suite of tools and services has been layered around this original contract:

Looking at these projects together to see their combined effect. Each Punk that is collateralized in loans, or in PunkStrategy, or in FWA means one less Punk listed near the floor. To what extent these new mechanisms have thinned the floor supply and amplified market volatility remains an open question, but it is worth keeping an eye on this clue.

A Different Round of Increase

In previous cycles, the Punk market often surged in sync with ETH strengthening. When the floor price surged to about 54 ETH (over 200,000 dollars) at the end of July 2025, ETH trading was around 3,745 dollars, and it reached an all-time high of about 4,954 dollars on August 24, 2025.

This time is slightly different. Currently, ETH is about 2,690 dollars, approximately 46% lower than its peak; although ETH has not been completely sluggish recently, Punks are heating up without a breakthrough in ETH strength.

Either Punks are acting as an early read on on-chain risk appetite, or they are starting to trade on their own logic.

Of course, the aforementioned rare pieces being sold for USDC points more towards the latter. Paying with stablecoins suggests that buyers want exposure to Punks without taking on ETH volatility, or they are entering through TradFi channels.

Regardless of the explanation, this batch of Ethereum-native NFTs is moving again, and there is a new set of building blocks around them. What remains to be seen is whether this surge in trading volume can be sustained and whether it will translate into a broader bullish sentiment for NFTs.