A CryptoPunk worth $95K is now worth $0 on Ethereum. The owner recently burned it to point to an inscription on Bitcoin. And there are more following in its footsteps.
When an NFT is sent to the burn address, itâs irreversibleâ thereâs no undo button and no one can send it back. đȘŠ
But this Punk wasnât the only highly valuable NFT removed from circulation forever.
Letâs take our minds off the tough market and have some funâ Here are the stories behind some of the most infamous burned NFTs.
PUNK 8611: SACRIFICED FOR AN ALLOWLIST SPOT đ„
Ordinals project OrdinalMaxiBiz opened a portal allowing CryptoPunks to burned for an allowlist spot for a future project.
Punk 8611 was the first to be burned for it on June 17, 2021, an event which was organized and fundraised by the Bitcoin Bandits community. They even documented it on video.
They bought the Punk for around $95K, and it was burned only hours later. It now points to inscription 12,456,749. This Punk also had Epic and Rare 10KTFÂ items to claim, leaving even more $$$ on the table.
Members of the DeGods community just fundraised 55 ETH to burn their own PunkâŠIâm pretty sure that the Punk sacrificing has just begun. RIP, yâall are wild for that.
Sacrifice Page
BAYC 8860: BURNED FOR ENGAGEMENT đ„
Bored Ape 8860 was burned as âperformance artâ by member tayl0rwtf on June 17, 2021.
âMy friend. I have sent your gift,â taylor tweeted alongside a GIF of his ape burning. "I hope the apes cause you less trouble than they have for me.â
The same member later put up an auction for the burnt ape, but Yuga Labs requested OpenSea to take the auction down, since the member had no more rights to the ape and its likeness.
PUNK 685: A TRAGIC WRAPPING ACCIDENT đ„
Poor Brandon. While he was trying to wrap his CryptoPunk in March 2023, he accidentally burned it.
He now claims in his Twitter bio: âInadvertently burned Punk 685 and resurrected on Bitcoin.â An Ordinals maxi generously inscribed it on a decade-old satoshi for him two days after he burned it.
It turns out that Brandon has had the last laughâ he was early to Ordinal Punks, and traded one for another CryptoPunk in April. As a fellow former OP holder, thatâs a big brain move.
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BAYC 1626: THE FIRST ORDINALS OFFERING đ„
Jason Williams decided to use the Ordinals teleburn feature on February 12 to burn his ape on Ethereum and inscribe it on Bitcoin.
While it was a symbolic gesture, he essentially threw away $169K, which he could have sold his ape for on Ethereum at the time.
Greg Solano, one of the BAYC founders, said: âItâs basically the same as any other transfer: If you transfer your ape to an address you no longer control (even if itâs the âburnâ address), you have effectively given up your license.â
âEssentially itâs throwing a Lamborghini into a trash compactorâIt's kind of fun.â
PUNK 3493: A ZOMBIE MISHAP BY SNOWFRO đ„
I recently learned that the creator of Art Blocks and Chromie Squiggles, Mr. Snowfro himself, once burnt a Zombie punk on accident in 2019.
Snowfro minted many, many Punks back in 2017. While he was transferring many of them, he mistakenly left the address field blank. I guess MetaMask used to assume that was the burn address�
Either way, pour one out for this Zombie Punk (one of 88 total) who didnât make it. The most recent one sold for $1.5 million. Godspeed.
Photo: @0xRodo
DAMIEN HIRSTâS THE CURRENCY: A REVERSE BURN đ„
The Currency is a collection by British artist Damien Hirst made up of colorful dots. It âexplores the boundaries of art and currencyâwhen art changes and becomes a currency, and when currency becomes art.â
The 10k NFT collection was released in July 2021, but the artworks were created back in 2016 with enamel paint on handmade paper. Each was numbered, titled, stamped, and signed.
A year after collecting the NFT, collectors had to decide whether to exchange the NFT for a physical, or to keep the NFT. 4,851 physical artworks of The Currency were literally burned as a result, at his London gallery. This added up to an approximate value of $10 million.
When asked why, Hirst said: âI'm completing the transformation of these physical artworks into NFTs by burning the physical versions."
Burning The Currency physicals
When you copy and paste an address to send your NFT to, always triple-check it so that you donât accidentally send your beloved JPEG to a fiery end.
Burning has introduced interesting mechanics to the NFT ecosystem. It seems that the latest version of that is burning ETH NFTs for the sake of Ordinals on Bitcoin. Will these have any future value besides symbolic value?
And for those throwing away six figures for NFT Twitter engagement alone⊠godbless, but maybe seek some help. đ”âđ«
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