Suspicious $56.3 Million CryptoPunk NFT Sale Sparks Doubts

• The NFT was listed for less than 30 ETH, or around $69,000, only last month.
• The flash loan is connected to the Kamala Harris Punk meme coin’s impending debut.

The $56.3 million sale of a CryptoPunk NFT has made news. There have been rumors that this was all part of a plot to promote the “Kamala Harris Punk” meme coin that’s set to launch soon.

Recently, Punk 1563—a pixelated female character with blue eyes and black hair—sold for 24,000 ether (ETH), or about $56.3 million. Nonetheless, the authenticity of the deal is called into doubt by a number of warning signs.

Promotional Intent Likely

The NFT was listed for less than 30 ETH, or around $69,000, only last month. Thus, this most recent sale is an increase of about 81,000%. Punk 1563 is usually priced at the lower end of the collection’s pricing range. Since it does not have any unusual special characteristics either.

Flash loans, which are uncollateralized cryptocurrency loans that need repayment inside the same transaction, were also used to expedite this sale, according to on-chain statistics. Here, the seller returned the customer 2,4,000 Ethereum tokens (ETH) borrowed via the DeFi protocol Balancer. The transaction merely resulted in network fees and the NFT was moved to a separate wallet. Therefore no profit was really made.

Additional inquiry by an unnamed on-chain detective 0xQuit postulates that the flash loan is connected to the Kamala Harris Punk meme coin’s impending debut. Suggesting that the sale could have been orchestrated to create excitement for the token’s forthcoming pre-sale. As per 0xQuit, Punk 1563 will go through a week-long pre-sale process before being sold to the highest bidder.

The developer will get 10% of the token supply and 10% of the pre-sale. And Punk sale profits, according to their addition. The remaining monies will be used to create a liquidity pool on Uniswap. Together with funds from a fresh batch of tokens.

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