CryptoPunks owner borrows $8.3 million as market for Ether NFT-backed loans heats up

Sotheby's will auction off a large number of 104 high-value CryptoPunks NFTs in February, with one group estimated to sell for $20-30 million. Instead, the owner of the Ether NFTs withdrew the lot minutes before the auction began, touting Sotheby's "solidity" on Twitter.

Instead, the pseudonymous owner of the NFTs, 0x650d, secured a loan of $8.3 million against a set of CryptoPunks, the highest amount of such a loan.

The April 1 loan was secured in early March by a separate bundle of 101 CryptoPunks provided by another holder, who received $8 million. Both loans were made through NFTfi, an NFT-backed lending marketplace, and MetaStreet, a DAO (or decentralized autonomous organization) that provides liquidity, provided cash for both instances.

"Many thanks to the chads [at MetaStreet] for freeing up 8.32M in liquidity for my CryptoPunks while enabling me to keep upside exposure to my collection, " 0x650d tweeted. We tried to contact 0x650d for more information about the loan and the previous decision to cancel the Sotheby's auction, but received no response.