CryptoPunks are heating up again, and this time the story starts with volume rather than price.
According to CryptoSlam data cited in the report, the collection led NFT sales rankings with about $8.2 million in unwrapped trading volume from Sept. 19 to Sept. 26. That was roughly 11.7 times the previous week. On Oct. 1, two rare Punks changed hands within about 12 hours for a combined value of at least about $3.9 million.
Author William M. Peaster wrote that in April he had already argued in 「Are NFTs Back」 that volume, not floor-price fluctuation alone, would be the deciding signal for top Ethereum NFT collections. In his latest assessment, CryptoPunks now appear to be entering the early stage of another volume-driven upswing.
Volume spike centered around buying near Sept. 23
The report traces the immediate catalyst to a sweep that emerged around Sept. 23. Buyers were said to have picked up about 63 Punks for roughly $6 million, pushing the floor from around 29 ETH to about 34 ETH in roughly two days.
Viewed in a wider frame, the official Punks marketplace, counting only unwrapped Punk transactions, recorded about 4,490 ETH in volume over the past four weeks, equal to roughly $12 million. About half of that total came in the days around the Sept. 23 buying wave.
Floor prices have been calmer. The floor stood near 33 ETH, or about $89,000 by the figures in the article. That is about 31% above Jan. 1, but still roughly 39% below the level of around 54 ETH seen in late July 2025. For now, trading activity is moving faster than price.
Two rare Punks sold in USDC through GONDI
On Oct. 1, two of the rarest Punks sold within about 12 hours, both through GONDI. The platform is described in the report as a popular NFT lending venue whose Sell & Repay feature lets borrowers sell an NFT that has been pledged as collateral and clear the debt in the same transaction.
The first deal involved Punk #8348, the only Punk with seven traits. It sold for 3 million USDC plus an undisclosed amount, setting a new record for the largest sale in GONDI's history. Seller seedphrase had held the asset since 2020 and said it was an offer he 「couldn’t refuse」.
The second was Punk #3609, one of 88 zombie Punks. It sold for 875,000 USDC, worth about 326 ETH at the time. The transaction was brokered by Eli Scheinman, founder of Canon Punks.
Both trades shared two features. The assets moved as wrapped CryptoPunks 721 tokens, and the buyers paid in USDC rather than ETH.
Neither sale challenged the collection record mentioned in the article, Alien #5822 at 8,000 ETH in 2022. The report also notes that #3609 sold for less than the 440 ETH it fetched in May 2025, a reminder that even highly rare pieces do not move in one direction only.
A new market pipeline is forming around CryptoPunks
CryptoPunks launched in 2017, before the ERC-721 standard existed, so trading historically centered on its native, ETH-denominated marketplace. That setup is changing. The article says a broader toolset now sits around the original contract.
Those tools cover lending against Punks, brokerage-style matching, buying and redistribution. The report specifically argues that every Punk tied up in a loan, placed in PunkStrategy, or held in FWA means one less token listed around the floor.
How much these systems are thinning out floor supply and amplifying volatility remains an open question in the article, but it is presented as a line worth watching.
This rally is unfolding without a major ETH breakout
That is one of the clearest differences from prior cycles. In earlier periods, strong CryptoPunks markets often moved in sync with a stronger ETH tape. When the floor reached around 54 ETH, more than $200,000, in late July 2025, ETH traded near $3,745 and later set an all-time high of about $4,954 on Aug. 24, 2025.
This time, ETH was around $2,690, about 46% below its peak. The article says ETH has not been completely flat lately, but the current Punk revival is happening without a breakout move in the underlying token.
Peaster offers two possible readings. Either Punks are acting as an early read on onchain risk appetite, or they are beginning to trade on their own terms. The fact that the rare sales were settled in USDC points more toward the second view in the report. Stablecoin settlement may suggest buyers want Punk exposure without taking ETH volatility, or that some capital is arriving through TradFi channels.
The article ends on a straightforward point: Ethereum-native NFTs are moving again, but now they are doing so with a larger set of market tools around them. What comes next depends on whether this burst in volume can hold and whether it spreads into broader bullish sentiment across the NFT market.
