Christie's NFT Specialist Joins CryptoPunks Project With Yuga Labs

Noah Davis, a key member at auction house Christie's non-fungible token (NFT) project, has stated that he's leaving the position as specialist and head of digital in July to take up a post as brand lead for the CryptoPunks NFT collection with Yuga Labs. Announcing the move on Sunday in a Twitter thread, Davis said in one of his tweets "If you're a Punk holder and you care about the legacy/future of the brand I wanna talk one on-one. I'll be at the Punks Brunch during NFT NYC and will begin scheduling sit-downs immediately. Wherever Punks go, the community will help guide us."

Davis was in charge of Beeple's record-breaking “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” NFT auction, which sold for over $69 million (roughly Rs. 536 crore) in March 2021. The sale created a lot of buzz and spotlight regarding NFTs. It was validation that digital art could be bought and sold at high valuations from respected auction houses that deal with world-class art and luxury products for high-end clientele. With the success of its first NFT sale, Christie's decided to auction more digital tokens afterwards.

Yuga Labs acquired the intellectual property of the CryptoPunks collection from Larva Labs in March, saying it would transfer full commercial rights to the owners, a promise yet to be realised.

But Yuga Labs co-founder Wiley Aronov, also known as "Gargamel," signalled the stoppage in a series of tweets on 19 June, writing that it was "too important to rush" and that the new terms "will be in place in the next couple of weeks."

With the announcement of Davis' move and the new terms coming into effect soon, some claim insiders knew ahead of time the collection's growing sales volume.

According to OpenSea, 39 sales of the CryptoPunks collection have taken place since the announcement, with 101 sales in total on Sunday, up from the only 19 sold the day prior, on Saturday.