CryptoPunks Have New Home as Nonprofit Acquires Ethereum NFT IP From Yuga Labs

The Infinite Node Foundation, a newly established nonprofit endowment, announced Tuesday that it has acquired the IP of influential Ethereum NFT collection CryptoPunks from previous owner and Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs.

The Foundation, which announced a $25 million grant in April “to build the future of digital art,” will now steward the 10,000-piece Punks collection first created by Larva Labs in 2017, while Yuga Labs shifts back to its “apeish roots.”

CryptoPunks General Manager Natalie Stone told Decrypt that financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Stone will shift over from Yuga Labs to the Infinite Node Foundation, aka NODE, to serve as an advisor.

“CryptoPunks sparked a cultural movement that blended code, community, and commerce,” said Node Foundation Chair Micky Malka in a statement. “By pairing museum-grade conservation with an evergreen endowment, we intend to future-proof this landmark work and make it easier than ever for scholars, curators, and collectors to engage with it.”

The nonprofit’s stewardship will focus on three core components: preservation, community, and expansion—aiming to maintain the collection’s longevity, while developing new ways in which the pixel profile picture collection can be “studied, exhibited, and understood.”

The collection first changed hands in 2022 when Yuga Labs acquired the IP from original creator Larva Labs, alongside its Meebits companion collection (Yuga sold off the Meebits IP this February to a new startup).

“When Yuga acquired CryptoPunks’ IP, it wasn’t just about ownership—it was about honoring a cultural icon we believed in,” said Yuga Labs CEO and co-founder Wylie Aronow in a statement. “We’ve worked to elevate and protect their legacy, but we always knew Punks needed a permanent home built for preservation. Seeing that vision come to life with the NODE Foundation feels like a full-circle moment. They are best positioned to protect the Punks legacy.”

Aronow will join Art Blocks founder Erick Calderon and original CryptoPunks creators creators Matt Hall and John Watkinson of Larva Labs on an advisory board helping the Infinite Node Foundation to achieve its goals.

“The Punks were created to be truly decentralized, and have become a defining example of digital permanence and online network effects,” Hall and Watkinson said in a statement. “The NODE Foundation was created to explain and promote these ideas as a new art medium, and are the perfect long-term home for the Punks.”

In collaboration with Hall and Watkinson, the Foundation’s first move will be to host a major exhibition of the entire collection at its exhibition space in Palo Alto, California. 

The CryptoPunks price floor, or the lowest listed value of an asset on the marketplace, is up more than 19% on the week. It has jumped 74% in U.S. dollar denominations to $123,086 as the price of Ethereum has climbed nearly 45% over the same timeframe. 

Arguably the most prominent NFT collection of all time, and an inspiration to many collections that followed (including the Bored Apes), CryptoPunks trading volume has eclipsed more than $3 billion lifetime since its creation in 2017, according to data from Punks.wtf. The NFTs were originally given away via a free claim.

Edited by Andrew Hayward