Yuga Labs lets go of CryptoPunks, is the next stop for blue-chip NFTs a museum?

Original Author: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

Reprint: Oliver, Mars Finance

In May 2025, CryptoPunks were “sent to the museum.”

To be precise, it was Yuga Labs that transferred the intellectual property of this project, which pioneered the era of NFT art, to a nonprofit organization called Infinite Node Foundation (NODE). The latter announced that this acquisition not only includes the full intellectual property of CryptoPunks but also comes with a $25 million cultural fund and will promote an ambitious museum collaboration plan aimed at incorporating CryptoPunks into mainstream global art institutions.

It also boldly announced: “This is not a transfer of ownership, but liberation.”

Within hours after the announcement, the floor price of CryptoPunks quickly rebounded to around 48 ETH, and the trading volume also saw a significant increase. The once-silent trading interface became active again, as if reminding people of the glory that this set of pixel icons once held.

This blue-chip project, once regarded as the “totem of Web3,” is entering a new chapter after years of market peaks and emotional troughs. The foundation has also formed an advisory board to manage CryptoPunks, with Larva Labs founders and artists Matt Hall and John Watkinson returning to oversee the board, alongside Wylie Aronow (Yuga Labs) and Erick Calderon (Art Blocks) participating in the committee. Additionally, NODE will hire Natalie Stone as an advisor to support the NODE team during the transition.

But is this “return” a new beginning, or the end of an era?

From Pioneer to Classic, the Past and Present of CryptoPunks

CryptoPunks was created in 2017 by the Canadian developer group Larva Labs, inspired by punk culture and generative art. 10,000 pixel avatars were minted for free, at a time when there was no NFT market, and only a small number of Ethereum users claimed these images through smart contracts.

What truly made CryptoPunks a totem of crypto culture was the explosion of the NFT market in 2021. That year, NFTs became a mainstream topic of discussion, capturing the focus of everyone from Christie’s auction house to mainstream media, all spotlighting this new asset class. CryptoPunks, due to their “originality” identity, were regarded as the “classical artifacts” of digital art, and their prices skyrocketed.

In August 2021, Visa announced the purchase of CryptoPunk #7610，称其为「企业进入 NFT 时代的重要资产」，这一行为引发广泛模仿，推动了机构购入 NFT 的短期热潮。同年，多枚 Punk 头像在苏富比与佳士得拍出高价，如 Punk #7523 (commonly known as “Covid Alien”) for 49.5 ETH at Sotheby’s for 11.7 million USD, setting a record for the auction of a single Punk. After experiencing the craziest phase of the NFT market, the total transaction volume of CryptoPunks once surpassed 3 billion USD, cementing its mythic status as a “top-tier blue chip.”

However, the peak did not last long. With the launch of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) in the spring of 2021, which quickly built a strong social community, commercial licensing system, and star influence, CryptoPunks gradually revealed its fundamental but silent limitations. Newer entrants have won a larger user base through flexible IP licensing, peripheral products, and party events, while CryptoPunks, due to Larva Labs’ non-commercial stance, has made it impossible for holders to commercialize their Punk IP, leading to gradual marginalization in terms of community activity and scalability.

This niche ultimately led to Yuga Labs acquiring the CryptoPunks and Meebits IP in March 2022. Initially, the acquisition news had a positive impact on the price of CryptoPunks, but the actual progress following the acquisition was not as aggressive as the outside world had hoped. CryptoPunks were not heavily commercialized under Yuga’s management; on one hand, it avoided the vulgarity of IP generalization, but on the other hand, it also failed to establish an active ecosystem like BAYC. During these two years of the Web3 winter, CryptoPunks gradually became a presence that is “respected but untouchable.”

Symbolic “de-financialization”, non-profit foundation takes over NFT totem

The buyer in this sale, Infinite Node Foundation, is a nonprofit foundation established in 2025 by venture capitalist Micky Malka and curator Becky Kleiner. Its vision is to incorporate internet-native art into the mainstream cultural system and to conduct research, exhibitions, and archiving.

According to NODE, this acquisition is not a traditional merger in the conventional sense. The foundation has committed to building a permanent exhibition space in Palo Alto, where it will showcase the complete set of 10,000 CryptoPunks avatars for the first time. This is the first time in NFT history that a project has been curated in its entirety. At the same time, the exhibition space will operate a live Ethereum node, emphasizing the “on-chain locality” and “immutability” of on-chain art.

The language of NODE is very clear; they want to advocate for a formal position for Internet-native art within the academic system and museum institutions. It seems that CryptoPunks are undergoing a transformation of identity, no longer just speculative commodities, but rather “cultural heritage” that can be exhibited, researched, and narrated.

But this transformation is not entirely romantic. Although the transaction amount has not been disclosed, the $25 million cultural donation fund established by NODE may suggest Yuga Labs’ “profit-taking exit.”

For the latter, selling CryptoPunks seems more like a resource focus and financial optimization. Yuga initiated large-scale layoffs in 2024 and clearly concentrated its core business on the Otherside virtual world and the ApeCoin ecosystem. Selling Punks may be a rational divestment.

Who is defining the “artistry” of NFTs?

Interestingly, the main line behind this transaction is no longer, to some extent, valuation or floor price, but rather the status in art history.

The involvement of NODE has incorporated CryptoPunks into a more traditional cultural narrative: permanent collections, academic research, art curation… These terms sound more like the responsibilities of MoMA or the British Museum, rather than the everyday discussions within the crypto community.

In fact, the trend of NFTs moving towards “museumification” has long been in existence. In 2023, Autoglyphs were collected and exhibited by the Serpentine Gallery in London; Fidenza and Ringers began to be categorized by curatorial institutions as representatives of the “generative art movement”; Beeple’s “Everydays” became the starting point for NFTs’ “museum residency” after being sold for $69 million at Christie’s.

From this perspective, the emergence of NODE is a mild arrangement; it does not attempt to “empower” CryptoPunks, nor does it change its original appearance, but instead incorporates it into a systematic art protection track. If this buyer is a commercial company, its operational logic is likely to be IP licensing, commercial collaborations, and monetization of traffic. Although these practices may bring short-term profits, they may diminish the symbolic significance of CryptoPunks as a hallmark of digital native culture.

However, new questions arise: what is the next narrative for NFTs?

NODE stated in the announcement: “This is not a transfer of ownership, but a liberation.” As CryptoPunks become old money, becoming a “collection”, we may also be witnessing NFTs slowly turning from high-volatility financial experiments to low-frequency cultural styles. The transformation of CryptoPunks acts as a mirror, reflecting the anxieties of this industry.