Invested $1,000 in Ethereum When CryptoPunks Were Released: How Much Would You Have Made?

If you had invested $1,000 in Ethereum when CryptoPunks were first released back in 2017, you’d be sitting on a pretty nice profit today. Let’s break it down.

Back in 2017, when CryptoPunks made their debut as one of the first Ethereum-based NFTs, Ethereum was valued at a high of $348.01. Fast forward to today, and we’ve seen a recent surge in Ethereum’s value, even as other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin hit all-time highs.

Ethereum, which was proposed by co-founder Vitalik Buterin in 2014 and officially launched in 2015, has been a standout in the world of cryptocurrencies. In 2021 alone, Ethereum saw massive gains, going from $737.71 to $3,682.63.

One key factor in Ethereum’s success in 2021 was the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Larva Labs’ CryptoPunks, launched in June 2017, quickly became a sought-after collection of 10,000 24×24 pixel art images on the Ethereum blockchain.

While CryptoPunks didn’t initially take off, they have since become a standard in the world of NFTs and remain highly valuable. The collection has seen over $10.75 million in sales in just the last week, with the floor price for a CryptoPunks NFT currently sitting at around $133,695.

So, if you had invested $1,000 in Ethereum on the day CryptoPunks launched, you could have purchased 2.8735 ETH. Today, that investment would be worth around $10,361.81 based on Ethereum’s current price of $3,605.99. That’s an impressive 936.2% return on your investment over the last seven-plus years.

While Ethereum has fluctuated in price since its 2021 highs, hitting a one-month high of $3,614.88 just recently, the cryptocurrency has proven to be a valuable investment for those who got in early. With all-time highs of $4,891.70 reached in November 2021, Ethereum continues to be a strong player in the world of cryptocurrencies.