CryptoPunks is an NFT collection of 10,000 pixel-art characters that Larva Labs released on Ethereum in June 2017, before the ERC-721 standard existed. This guide explains how the punks were built and who owns them now, and then shows how to design your own pixel art NFT collection without copying them.
How the CryptoPunks NFT collection was built
Larva Labs was a two-person studio run by Matt Hall and John Watkinson. A program generated each punk as a 24 by 24 pixel image from a set of attributes, and the five base types appear at very different rates:
| Type | Count |
|---|---|
| Male | 6,039 |
| Female | 3,840 |
| Zombie | 88 |
| Ape | 24 |
| Alien | 9 |
Anyone with an Ethereum wallet could claim a punk for free and pay only the transaction fee. The project's GitHub README says the fee was about 11 cents at release. All 10,000 punks were claimed soon after launch.
Three technical details matter if you build something similar:
- A custom contract. The punks predate ERC-721, so their contract tracks ownership in its own format, and marketplaces trade them through a wrapper contract or a dedicated integration. A new collection should use ERC-721.
- A built-in marketplace. The contract has its own functions to offer a punk for sale, place a bid and buy, so owners can trade without any outside venue.
- Verifiable art. The contract stores the SHA-256 hash of one image file that shows all 10,000 punks, so anyone can hash the published file and compare the result. In August 2021 Larva Labs also stored the images and attributes on-chain.
The first contract had a flaw in its sale function, so Larva Labs deployed a fixed contract. Tokens from the first contract later traded as "V1" punks.
Who owns the CryptoPunks IP in 2026
- March 2022. Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, bought the CryptoPunks IP from Larva Labs and gave holders commercial rights to their own punks.
- May 2025. Yuga Labs sold the IP to the NODE Foundation, a non-profit set up to preserve the collection, which had received a $25 million grant in April 2025.
- December 2025. The Museum of Modern Art in New York added 10 punks to its permanent collection.
In October 2021, punk #9998 changed hands for 124,457 ETH. The buyer and the seller were the same person, who used a flash loan, so Larva Labs removed the sale from the punk's history.
Why the value does not transfer to new projects
The punks were early, free, scarce and simple. Their price today comes from being first and from a long public record of ownership, and a new project cannot copy either. A collection sold as "the next CryptoPunks" promises a history it does not have.
Design principles to borrow
Small, readable art
Pixel avatars stay clear at tiny sizes and look the same on every screen. The files are small enough to store on-chain, so the art needs no server and no IPFS pin.
Public rarity
Every punk's attributes are public, and rarity comes straight from trait counts, so publish your trait table and generation rules before the mint.
No roadmap
The punks launched with no roadmap, token or metaverse; the art was the whole product. Many 2021 projects promised games and tokens that never shipped, and their holders lost trust.
Provenance from the first day
Publish a hash of the final art set on-chain before the mint, then reveal, so collectors can check that the team did not move rare items.
Building a pixel art NFT collection
- Choose a grid and palette. Pick a canvas size such as 24x24, 32x32 or 64x64 and a small set of colors, and do not reuse the punk head shape or the punk attribute names.
- Define traits and rates. Start with base types, then add hair, eyewear, headwear, facial hair and accessories, and list the combinations that must never appear.
- Generate and check. A script builds the images, checks for duplicates and broken overlaps, and writes the metadata. The NFT creator guide covers this pipeline step by step.
- Choose storage. Pixel art is small enough for fully on-chain storage, where the contract's
tokenURIfunction returns SVG or base64 image data. The other options are IPFS with a pinning service, or Arweave. - Write the contract. Use ERC-721, or ERC-721A for cheaper batch minting. Set a fixed supply, add EIP-2981 royalties if you want them, and keep admin rights to a minimum. See the NFT smart contract guide.
- Plan distribution. Choose a free claim, a low-price mint or an allowlist for an existing community. Free mints attract bots, so limit mints per wallet.
- Audit and launch. Even a short contract needs a review, especially of the mint and withdraw functions.
Legal limits
Collections that copied the punk look have received takedown requests and legal claims. Do not use the CryptoPunks name, characters or distinctive attributes. Pixel art as a style is free to use, but specific characters are protected. Avoid marketing that suggests buyers will earn a return, because such claims can raise securities questions.
Whether you need your own marketplace
In most cases you do not, because an ERC-721 collection trades on existing marketplaces. A built-in marketplace, like the one in the punks contract, adds code that attackers can target. If your community needs its own venue, the OpenSea clone guide explains what that build involves.
Frequently asked questions
What is a CryptoPunks NFT?
A CryptoPunks NFT is one of 10,000 pixel-art characters on Ethereum, created by Larva Labs in 2017. Each punk is a unique token in a custom contract that predates ERC-721.
Who owns CryptoPunks now?
Each holder owns their punk and has commercial rights to it. The brand and IP moved from Larva Labs to Yuga Labs in 2022 and from Yuga Labs to the non-profit NODE Foundation in 2025.
Can I make an exact copy of CryptoPunks?
No. The art and brand are protected, and holders have commercial rights to their punks. Copies risk takedowns and legal claims, and collectors treat them as knock-offs.
Is on-chain storage worth it for pixel art NFTs?
In most cases, yes. Small images cost little to store on-chain, and the art then lasts as long as the chain without a server or pinning service.
Do pixel avatars still sell?
The PFP market is far smaller than in 2021, but small collections with a distinct style and an existing audience still find collectors, and generic collections mostly do not.