NFT Profile Picture Craze Fades, Yet Someone Lists for $115 Million to Sell...
Crypto Slam data shows that sales of several top NFT profile pictures have declined compared to two weeks ago. Crypto Punks and Meebits sales fell by 73% and 77% respectively, while BoredApe Yacht Club sales also dropped by 56%.
Yet just a few weeks ago, these NFT profile pictures were undeniably the hot topic in the community. As a veteran in the profile picture world, Crypto Punks achieved sales of over $50 million in a week, with an average price of around $200,000 per piece—a height naturally difficult to reach. Meanwhile, Bored Apes, which announced they would be auctioned at Christie's in September, saw price increases. With unprecedented popularity and growing sales volume, NFT profile pictures occupied 3 of the top 5 spots on the sales leaderboards across all three data websites: Non Fungible, Crypto Slam, and Dapp Radar.
Additionally, another NFT profile picture called Pudgy Penguins is gaining traction. Reddit co-founder and well-known investor Alexis Ohanian tweeted his Pudgy Penguin NFT, while New York Times author Kevin Roose stated he had joined the penguin club and documented his views on NFT profile pictures in the New York Times. On August 13, news indicated that Pudgy Penguins' daily trading volume had exceeded $11 million, a clear sign of its popularity.
Why can a simple JPEG image, when touched with NFT or blockchain elements, see its value soar, even to such crazy extents? And how can its popularity suddenly plummet within just a few days? Are NFT profile pictures an investment or hype? Let's explore this today.
Would You Spend Tens of Thousands of Dollars on a Profile Picture?
From late July to August, news about Crypto Punks emerged constantly. First, an anonymous address spent nearly 2,700 ETH (approximately $6.58 million) to purchase 104 Crypto Punks consecutively, with an average price of about $63,300 each. Reports show that this user even bribed Ethereum miners to ensure purchasing all Punks within a single block, avoiding activating any MEV bots or triggering bidding wars. Then, a Crypto Punk was sold for approximately $4.4 million (1,500 ETH ), while its previous owner had acquired it for only $443 in 2018—holding it for 3 years yielded an astonishing 9,931x gain.
If you visit the Crypto Punks official website, you'll see this scene: among the top ten Punks by ranking, the highest transaction price was 4,200 ETH (approximately $7.58 million), and even the lowest transaction price was 750 ETH (approximately $1.18 million). The owner of #3100, which had the highest transaction price, has even listed it for 35,000 ETH (approximately $115 million).
The official website shows that Crypto Punks' current floor price is 41.99 ETH, meaning the minimum selling price is approximately $137,600.
Dapp Radar data shows that as of August 16, Crypto Punks' total trading volume exceeded $700 million, reaching a historical high of $704 million at the time of writing. The number of traders was 4,257, with 16,599 sales, ranking second only to Axie Infinity.
Among the top ten projects by total trading volume on Dapp Radar, we also saw Meebits, which ranked seventh with total trading volume of $131 million and 4,671 traders.
It's worth mentioning that both Crypto Punks and Meebits come from the same team—Larva Labs. Before launching Crypto Punks, this was a software company specializing in developing mobile applications for iPhone and Android, founded by John Watkinson and Matt Hall.
In 2017, they created a "pixel character generator" that could be used to create many cool avatars. Eventually, they decided to bring these pixel avatars to the blockchain, and these pixel avatars inspired by the cypherpunk movement of the 20th century thus emerged.
Meebits, unlike the 2D pixelated Crypto Punks, are voxel-rendered 3D characters and have been endowed with the high hope of becoming the leading "3D avatar for virtual worlds, games, and virtual reality"—in other words, Meebits were designed to become the identity of choice for the metaverse.
If we look at NFT trading volume over the past 30 days, NFT profile pictures occupy 3 of the top 5 spots: Crypto Punks, BoredApe Yacht Club, and Pudgy Penguins.
Bored Ape Yacht Club's trading volume over the past 30 days was $101 million, while Pudgy Penguins' trading volume over the past 30 days was $61.21 million.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is a new NFT project launched in April 2021, consisting of 10,000 ape NFTs. It includes 170 attributes of varying rarity—hats, eyes, expressions, clothing, backgrounds, etc.—generated through random programmatic combinations, with each ape having unique expressions and attire.
Initially, BAYC didn't attract much market attention until well-known collector Pranksy tweeted that he had purchased 250 apes. Subsequently, BAYC sales surged and sold out in less than 2 hours. It's reported that each ape's initial price was 0.08 ETH, while now, OpenSea data shows that even the cheapest ape has received a highest bid of 10.5 ETH (approximately $34,400). If sold, that represents a return of up to 130x.
Pudgy Penguins have shown a similar trend. NFT data analysis website NFT Stats shows that Pudgy Penguins sold 7,587 times in the past 7 days, with total sales of $52.93 million. The average price of one Pudgy Penguin is around $7,000, while those with rare features, such as #6873, sold for $468,600 just 6 days ago.
In just a few months, or even weeks, values can soar several times, or even dozens of times. Such enthusiasm naturally attracts investors swarming in. Yet compared to the frenzy of a few weeks ago, in recent days we've observed a cooling phenomenon in NFT profile pictures.
Crypto Punks data shows that Crypto Punks' daily trading volume fell from its August 5 peak of $50.1276 million to $4.5818 million on August 15. Sales over the past 7 days also show Crypto Punks down 71.47%. Meebits, from the same project team, also saw sales down 78.27% over the past 7 days. Bored Ape Yacht Club, after its surge in sales, also saw sales down 56.33% over the past 7 days.
Although the NFT profile picture craze has declined, the market still shows clear interest in high-value NFT profile pictures. Christie's, the world-renowned auction house, previously stated that it would auction a set of rare NFTs from Crypto Punks, Bored Apes, and Meebits in late September.
NFT Profile Pictures: Investment or Hype?
Why can a small profile picture attract major KOLs and rapidly appreciate in value over a short period? Perhaps we can try to understand this from the following three levels.
First, seasoned media commentator Packy McCormick believes that owning a Crypto Punk has clearly become a status symbol, much like owning a limited edition luxury handbag. A Punk owner can change their social media avatar to the Punk they own, but if someone who doesn't own a Punk casually changes their avatar to a Crypto Punk they don't own, they'll receive mockery and disdain. After Facebook announced its full commitment to developing the metaverse, more and more views believe that NFTs will play an incredibly important role in the metaverse. As the world moves toward digitalization, owning something that you can carry with you on the network becomes crucial.
Eugene Wei, author of "Status-as-a-Service," proposes two fundamental principles: humans are monkeys pursuing social status, and humans always seek the most efficient ways to maximize social capital. Social capital is a leading indicator of financial capital in many ways, so its nature deserves more attention. This is not only good investment or business practice—analyzing the dynamics of social capital also helps explain various seemingly irrational behaviors.
Second, there's also the view that NFT profile pictures are embraced because internet natives have grown into the backbone of society. They prefer virtual worlds, which is also why otaku culture and the otaku economy are flourishing. For them, NFT profile pictures are easier to understand, and they can accept their exchange needs and trading value. Of course, the transparency of blockchain also allows new NFT profile pictures—so-called digital collectibles—to avoid the "gray areas" of traditional collectibles. Not only can trading history and circulation be traced, but counterfeiting can also be prevented.
Finally, market sentiment is an excellent catalyst. When everyone starts shouting that we're entering a digital world where blockchain technology and NFTs will play extremely important roles—that crypto assets are a medium of value transfer, while NFTs play the role of mapping everything in reality to the digital world—then the idea that "digital identity is indispensable and must be positioned first" will take root. Add to this the fuel of market sentiment, and the NFT profile picture craze naturally rises.
Connecting NFTs with limited edition profile pictures and powerful brand marketing, it's undeniable that we've glimpsed more and more traces of how early luxury goods emerged. These luxury goods, by precisely锁定 brand users, building highly loyal product systems, and promoting products through multiple dimensions, eventually developed into what we see today. At the same time, beyond being seen as a status symbol, NFT profile pictures are also endowed with significance as the digitalization trend of assets accelerates as a new generation of internet natives become the backbone of the network, and as social business cards for the metaverse. Whether NFT profile pictures are an old-wine-in-new-bottle marketing model or represent the future of digital life, perhaps only time will give us the answer.
Disclaimer
This article may contain product-related content not applicable to your region. This article is intended only to provide general information and assumes no responsibility for any factual errors or omissions herein. This article represents only the author's personal views and does not represent OKX 's views. This article is not intended to provide any of the following advice, including but not limited to: (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) offers or solicitations to buy, sell, or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal, or tax advice. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins) involves high risk, may fluctuate significantly, and may even become worthless. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial situation. For questions about your specific situation, please consult your legal/tax/investment professional. The information appearing in this article (including market data and statistics, if any) is for general reference only. Although we have taken all reasonable precautions in preparing these data and charts, we assume no responsibility for any factual errors or omissions expressed herein. © 2025 OKX. This article may be reproduced or distributed in its entirety, or excerpts of 100 words or less from this article may be used, provided such use is non-commercial. Any reproduction or distribution of the entire article must also prominently state: "Copyright © 2025 OKX. Used with permission." Permitted excerpts must cite the article name and include attribution, such as "Article Name, [Author Name (if applicable)], © 2025 OKX". Some content may be generated or assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Derivative works or other uses of this article are not permitted.
Show More
Recommended Reading
OKX Pay: Opening a New Era of Next-Generation Crypto Payments
Join tens of millions of users in choosing OKX to enjoy the ultimate trading experience and diverse wealth management products. A letter from OKX CEO Star: Today, we are officially launching the first version of OKX Pay to over 100 million global users. As the industry's first payment app to truly achieve non-custodial and compliant integration, OKX Pay will be embedded in the OKX App, currently available in select markets and expected to fully
March 22, 2026
New Chapter: Building Next-Generation Financial Infrastructure Together
The partnership between OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is an important moment for OKX and equally profound for the evolution of the entire digital assets market. ICE establishes and operates the world's most important financial infrastructure, including the New York Stock Exchange and global derivatives and clearing platforms. This investment by ICE in OKX and joining our board reflects both parties' shared belief—digital assets technology will play an extremely important role in financial markets
March 10, 2026
Tribute to Another Year of Forging Ahead
As CEO of OKX, and also a builder who never forgets his original intention, I'm proud to look back on OKX's extraordinary growth and progress this year. Despite many challenges, 2024 was a year of focus, innovation, and resilience. We not only expanded and optimized our products but also made significant progress in launching transparent and regulatory-compliant localized businesses, while further strengthening our global management team. Notably, after experiencing
January 29, 2026
2025: Steady Progress Toward Financial Freedom Together
— Annual letter from OKX Founder and CEO Star to global users "Financial freedom" is often misunderstood. It doesn't mean no rules, but rather having the right to choose within the framework of rules—and when the system is truly tested, it remains reliable and effective. This is exactly what we've focused on throughout 2025. First, I want to extend my sincere gratitude to global customers, partners, and regulatory authorities
January 16, 2026
OKX Officially Launches in Germany and Poland
Author: Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe Today is significant for OKX—and for crypto users across Europe. We have officially launched our fully compliant centralized cryptocurrency trading platform in Germany and Poland! For us, this is not just a geographic expansion, but a commitment to building the cryptocurrency future the right way: secure, transparent, and meeting local needs. If you're in Germany
October 21, 2025
Partnership Upgrade! OKX Partners with Standard Chartered to Expand European Market
On October 15, OKX Europe CEO Erald Ghoos stated that OKX is expanding its strategic partnership with Standard Chartered to the European Economic Area (EEA). Earlier this year, OKX first partnered with Standard Chartered in the UAE to launch the collateral mirroring program—this is a
October 15, 2025
