Yuga Labs, the acclaimed creator behind the prominent Bored Ape Yacht Club and numerous other influential NFT collections, has transferred ownership of its landmark CryptoPunks brand to the NODE Foundation. NODE, a nonprofit organization devoted to the preservation and advancement of digital art, secured this iconic NFT set, though specific terms and financial details of the transaction remain undisclosed. Representatives from both parties declined to comment further.
This acquisition follows a substantial $25 million grant NODE received in April from investors Micky Malka, who now serves as the organization’s chair, and Becky Kleiner. The purpose of this grant was explicitly stated as an effort to “build the future of digital art.”
Originally developed and owned by Larva Labs, CryptoPunks rose rapidly in popularity amid the cryptocurrency and NFT boom of recent years. In 2022, Yuga Labs bought the collection in a notable deal, at a time when NFTs were routinely fetching record-breaking prices. Notably, the most expensive Cryptopunk ever sold commanded nearly $24 million, cementing its status as a groundbreaking cultural phenomenon at the peak of the digital asset frenzy.
However, the NFT market has cooled significantly since those peak times. Malka praised CryptoPunks as having sparked a meaningful cultural movement and emphasized that NODE Foundation’s mission would be to preserve and make the pioneering collection broadly accessible, effectively “future-proofing” the cherished pieces for generations of digital art enthusiasts to come.
