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⌐◪-◪ → CryptoPunk #5822, one of nine aliens, just sold for an undisclosed amount in a private transaction.

For context: Deepak purchased the NFT for 8,000 ETH ($23.7M) in February 2022 — the highest CryptoPunk sale of all time in both ETH and USD. The next two largest CryptoPunk sales are:

• CryptoPunk #7804 → 4,850 ETH ($16.42M)

• CryptoPunk #3100 → 4,500 ETH ($16.03M)

The previous owner, Deepak, confirmed the sale in a tweet, and another user, @vombatus_real, claims to be the private buyer at 1,500 ETH — but I think this is a joke/engagement farming.

I have a hunch we’ll never know the final sale price; it’s probably a pretty embarrassing L, to be honest. Great tax loss harvesting, though.

💬 How much do you think the Alien Punk sold for?

⌐◪-◪ → Franklin Templeton, a $1.6T asset manager, just filed for a crypto index ETF under the ticker EZPZ — lol.

The fund will initially hold Bitcoin and Ethereum and be market cap-weighted, with plans to add other cryptocurrencies over time to provide investors broad exposure to the crypto market.

With that said, adding other digital assets (beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum) will require additional regulatory approvals, meaning the index’s evolution could be pretty slow.

While vehicles like this might not embody the spirit of self-custody, they are certainly retail-friendly products (like the S&P 500) we can all point our friends/family towards. It’s also a strong indication the crypto industry is maturing!

It will be interesting to see what performs better over the next 5-10 years, this new crypto index or Bitcoin itself.

💬 What do you think performs better EZPZ or BTC?

⌐◪-◪ → Roughly 75% of all Bitcoin in circulation has not moved in the last 6 months, suggesting a strong increase in the “HODL” mindset — levels not seen since 2015.

For context: 94% of Bitcoin’s total supply has already been mined, with only 1.25M Bitcoin left to be mined over the next 116 years.

On the positive side, it’s refreshing to see conviction in Bitcoin’s long-term value despite its recent 20% dump — which clearly sent some (but not all) investors running for the hills.

On the negative side, one could argue this is a bad thing as it indicates people aren’t actually using Bitcoin or more simply that this record number of HODLERs may decide it’s time to sell — which we’ve seen in the past.

💬 What do you think, is this a bullish or bearish metric?