Infinite Node Foundation (NODE), a nonprofit focused on digital art, has acquired the intellectual property of the CryptoPunks non-fungible token (NFT) collection from Yuga Labs, NODE said in a May 13 announcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The acquisition of CryptoPunks, plus its additional $25 million endowment, establishes NODE as \u201cthe most well-capitalized nonprofit dedicated solely to digital art in the United States,\u201d the foundation said<\/a> in an X post.\u00a0<\/p>\n The terms of the deal were not disclosed.\u00a0<\/p>\n The nonprofit said it has assembled an advisory board to oversee the CryptoPunks collection. It comprises Matt Hall and John Watkinson \u2014 the artists behind the NFT collection \u2014 and a representative of Yuga Labs, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur role is to build a networked architecture that allows digital art like CryptoPunks to thrive within both digital and art-historical canons,\u201d NODE said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The highest-grossing CryptoPunks NFTs. Source: <\/em>CryptoPunks<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Doodles NFT token stalls after airdrop<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n CryptoPunks are \u201calgorithmically generated pixel art characters\u201d that \u201cchanged the art world by existing outside of it and sparked a cultural shift that continues to reshape our digital world,\u201d according to NODE.<\/p>\n It is the most valuable NFT collection, with a total market capitalization of nearly $1.2 billion across its 10,000 NFTs as of May 13, according to data<\/a> from CoinGecko.<\/p>\n The CryptoPunks collection was launched in 2017 by Larva Labs, an NFT designer co-founded by Hall and Watkinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since then, the NFTs have clocked upward of $3 billion in sales, according to NODE. Each NFT sale creates royalties for the holders of the NFTs\u2019 IP.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2022, the highest-grossing CryptoPunk NFT sold for nearly $24 million, according<\/a> to CryptoPunks\u2019 website. The collection was purchased in 2022 by Yuga Labs, best known for designing the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection \u2014 the third-largest NFT collection by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yuga simultaneously purchased Meebits, another Larva NFT collection, before selling it in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n In March, Yuga Labs said the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) closed an investigation into the company<\/a> in what it described as \u201ca huge win for NFTs.\u201d <\/p>\nMost valuable NFT collection<\/h2>\n