CryptoPunks posted a sharp rise in trading activity in late September, reclaiming the top spot among NFT collections by weekly sales and drawing attention back to one of Ethereum’s oldest profile-picture projects. The move was driven by a burst of buying around Sept. 23 and followed by two high-value sales of rare Punks on Oct. 1.

The recent activity stands out not only for the amount traded but also for how it happened. Alongside the jump in volume, rare Punks changed hands through newer market infrastructure, including lending and brokerage tools that were not part of earlier CryptoPunks cycles.

A fast jump in weekly volume

From Sept. 19 through Sept. 26, CryptoPunks generated about $8.2 million in unwrapped sales volume, according to the source article, making the collection the top NFT seller for the week. That was roughly 11.7 times the level recorded in the previous week.

A reported sweep around Sept. 23 appears to have sparked the move. Buyers were said to have acquired about 63 Punks for around $6 million, lifting the collection’s floor price from about 29 ETH to about 34 ETH in roughly two days.

The article noted that over the prior four weeks, the official CryptoPunks marketplace, which tracks only unwrapped Punk sales, recorded around 4,490 ETH, or about $12 million, in total volume. By that measure, roughly half of the recent month’s activity was concentrated in the few days surrounding the sweep.

Price has risen, but less than volume

Despite the burst in trading, floor-price movement has been more measured than the volume figures suggest. The collection was described as sitting near 33 ETH, or about $89,000, at the time of publication.

That level puts the floor up about 31% since the start of the year, but still around 39% below the roughly 54 ETH seen in late July 2025. The recent trend therefore points more clearly to faster turnover in the collection than to a full recovery in pricing.

Two rare Punks sell for at least $3.875 million

On Oct. 1, two of the rarest CryptoPunks sold within about 12 hours of each other through GONDI, an NFT lending platform whose Sell & Repay feature allows users to sell collateralized NFTs and settle debt in the same transaction flow.

The larger transaction involved Punk #8348, described as the only Punk with seven attributes. It sold for 3 million USDC plus an undisclosed additional amount, making it the biggest sale in GONDI’s history, according to the article. The seller, seedphrase, had held the asset since 2020.

Later the same day, Punk #3609, one of the 88 Zombie Punks, sold for 875,000 USDC, or about 326 ETH at the time, in a deal brokered by Eli Scheinman, founder of CanonPunks. Both trades were executed as wrapped CryptoPunks 721 tokens and settled in USDC rather than ETH. Neither sale approached the collection’s record, Alien #5822 at 8,000 ETH in 2022, and #3609 sold below the 440 ETH it reportedly fetched in May 2025.

New infrastructure is shaping the market

CryptoPunks launched in 2017 before the ERC-721 standard was introduced, and for years the collection primarily traded on its own marketplace in ETH. The current rally is unfolding in a more developed ecosystem, where lending, brokering, and packaging tools can influence how supply appears in the market.

The article pointed to the possible impact of Punks being locked in loans or held in structures such as PunkStrategy or FWA, arguing that each of those placements may leave fewer Punks listed near the floor. How much that is thinning available supply and magnifying price moves remains uncertain, but it is presented as a key factor to watch.

What makes this run different

Previous strong periods for CryptoPunks have often aligned with a stronger ETH market. When the Punk floor reached around 54 ETH in late July 2025, ETH itself was trading near $3,745 and later went on to make its all-time high around $4,954 on Aug. 24, 2025.

This time, the backdrop is weaker. ETH was cited at around $2,690, roughly 46% below its peak, yet Punks were still seeing renewed activity. The article suggested two possible readings: that Punks may be acting as an early signal of improving onchain risk appetite, or that demand is becoming more independent from ETH’s price action.

The use of USDC in both grail sales may support the second interpretation, since stablecoin settlement could appeal to buyers seeking Punk exposure without direct ETH volatility. The next confirmed question is whether this burst of trading can persist and whether it spills over into broader NFT market strength.

Source: www.bankless.com