The Untold Story of CryptoPunks: A Documentary Five Years in the Making
TLDR:
- CryptoPunks, the influential NFT collection from 2021, is now the focus of a highly anticipated documentary by indie filmmaker Sherone Rabinovitz.
- Rabinovitz surprised fans with an extended trailer, aiming to bridge the gap between crypto enthusiasts and the wider audience.
- The documentary explores the impact of NFTs on global onboarding, decentralized markets, cryptocurrencies, and self-sovereignty.
- It all began with an interview in 2018 with CryptoPunks’ founders, shedding light on the project’s early days and evolution.
- The trailer hints at the cultural phenomenon that CryptoPunks became, leading to its acquisition by Yuga Labs in 2022, marking a new chapter.
CryptoPunks, the pixelated NFT collection that played a pivotal role in the 2021 NFT art craze, is now the subject of an eagerly anticipated documentary.
Indie filmmaker Sherone Rabinovitz has been diligently crafting this documentary since March 2018, and it promises to be a revelation for crypto enthusiasts and newcomers alike.
A Surprise Trailer Drop by Sherone Rabinovitz
Sherone Rabinovitz shared his excitement about Beeple’s upcoming CryptoPunks Party and surprised fans with a rough-cut extended trailer of the CryptoPunks documentary.
The trailer includes a 6-minute clip created in May 2018, along with 3.5 minutes of recent material.
On the occasion of @beeple’s upcoming @cryptopunksnfts Party, I thought it’d be fun to add fuel to the festive fire by releasing a rough-cut of the extended Trailer of my CryptoPunks documentary.
— sherone.eth 🎸🎶 🎥 🎞👨💻 (@Sherone33) September 28, 2023
Strap yourselves in - this one goes waaay back!https://t.co/shFcgvC4aR
👉🧵
Sherone aims to introduce the incredible Punk + NFTs story to a broader audience, bridging the gap between crypto-natives and the rest of the world.
The documentary explores the impact of NFTs on global onboarding, decentralized marketplaces, cryptocurrencies, and self-sovereignty.
“While many of you crypto-natives might know a bit of it, the rest of the ‘normie’ population out there still does not,” wrote the filmmaker on X, highlighting the documentary’s mission to educate and entertain.
The Genesis of CryptoPunks
The journey begins with a pivotal interview in 2018 when Sherone Rabinovitz sat down with the creators of CryptoPunks, John Watkinson and Matt Hall.
Little did they know that this conversation would set the wheels in motion for a groundbreaking documentary.
In the recently released extended trailer, a four-minute snippet from the 2018 interview takes us back to the early days of CryptoPunks.
John Watkinson, one of the founders, reflects on those nascent moments. He recounts the painstaking process of creating the punks’ unique accessories over a month, laying the foundation for this remarkable project.
Importantly, Watkinson emphasizes that CryptoPunks were not a finished product upon launch, highlighting the journey from inception to phenomenon.
“I had a few more things [to change] and all of a sudden it was like, ‘Oh wait, we’re kind of through a one-way door here. We deployed the contract already,’” Watkinson revealed in the 2018 interview.
From Pixelated Avatars to Cultural Phenomenon
The trailer doesn’t stop at the project’s inception but provides a glimpse into the cultural explosion that unfolded over the subsequent years.
What began as pixelated avatars evolved into a cultural phenomenon.
Conferences, celebrity endorsements, spinoff projects, and auction house intrigue all played a part in the rise of CryptoPunks.
In a significant turn of events, Yuga Labs, the company responsible for the immensely popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, acquired the intellectual property rights of CryptoPunks from Watkinson and Hall in 2022.
At the time, Watkinson and Hall expressed their belief that Yuga Labs was better suited to handle the day-to-day management of the project, marking a new chapter in the CryptoPunks saga.
The Current State of CryptoPunks
As of now, the CryptoPunks market has seen its floor price maintain stability since April of this year.
It sits at 43.60 ETH according to NFT Price Floor, approximately equivalent to $71,502 at the time of writing.
This stability reflects the enduring fascination with these iconic digital collectibles.
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