NFT projects are very effective at creating communities around them and turning each member into a cog of the greater marketing machine. As a side-effect, people become too protective and tribal, with one of the greatest differences to settle being the host blockchain itself. But as bridges expand their capabilities and the conflictual culture cools down, some envision a cross-chain NFT universe.
On Oct 7, 50 CryptoPunks officially traveled through the Wormhole bringing the OG NFT collection from Ethereum to Solana. In this report we will look at this exciting step in the direction of a cross-chain NFT universe and how it was accomplished.
I. The PUNKS
ID: 794, 880, 927, 983, 1561, 1776, 1803, 2055, 2172, 2210, 2397, 2582, 2679, 2686, 3376, 3470, 3802, 3842, 3950, 4014, 4197, 4286, 4416, 4443, 4454, 5043, 5380, 5570, 5904, 6259, 6560, 6641, 7148, 7392, 7408, 7454, 7650, 7758, 7824, 7857, 8034, 8167, 8591, 8653, 9041, 9157, 9533, 9828, 9857, 9958
Each of the CryptoPunks listed above were first wrapped into a Wrapped CryptoPunk to change their format from ERC-20 to ERC-721 so they can preserve their metadata and be compatible with the Wormhole Portal. All of the Punks were sent consecutively to Solana over the course of 1.5 hours and spending a total of just $68 on gas.
To commemorate the journey, an NFT was minted on Ethereum displaying the brave travellers:
On their arrival, each WPUNK was minted using Metaplex and they now all sit in the 2Hr3qdi5VpzBhBNtt3nmbpxFtD7Zirr4Mw9cTt6reWy8 wallet. Although since then there has been no movement, the Twitter page behind this says they will be traded on the recently launched Hadeswap NFT AMM.
*The full list of WPUNK mints on Solana can be found in the Appendix.
II. Captain of the Ship
There is no one currently taking credit for this action publicly, but by checking the origin of the PUNKS and trading history we can at least come closer to the groups behind this.
First, all NFTs were freshly wrapped and then wormholed by the same address: 0x505d79c7379ee65b6c2d6d18a0e7ab901b00756c. This address currently has an ENS domain registered as sos1usd.eth. Using its transaction history and OpenSea account, we can trace the address back to the @sos1usd3 handle on Twitter.
The account is not very active and does not have any clear affiliation with any project, besides rocking a PudgyPenguin profile picture. More on that in a minute.
sos1usd.eth purchased 41 of the PUNKS directly off the market at an average price of $198,231 per NFT. Most of them were purchased in January, February and March of 2022, with the most recent one being purchased on June 14.
The remaining 9 PUNKS were transferred to sos1usd.eth from a different address. Before the transfer, these were purchased off the market at an average price of $332,423 per NFT in the second half of 2021 and one in January of 2022.
The sender is 0x8c0d2B62F133Db265EC8554282eE60EcA0Fd5a9E with the ENS domain 9x9x9.eth which we can trace back to the @9x9x9eth handle on Twitter, a core member of @The_OpenDAO, an organisation looking to create “a digital native community centered around leveling the playing field for both creators and collectors” and having as a massive milestone on their roadmap the launch of an NFT AMM.
As it happens, @9x9x9eth is the alt account of @HGE.SOL, the person behind Hadeswap. All this simply reveals that the whole trip is most likely a marketing stunt ran by @HGE.SOL using his own PUNKS to generate buzz around Hadeswap and entice the Ethereum folks to make the same journey themselves, if not with their own NFTs, at least with token liquidity for the chain.
Conclusions
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The 50 PUNKS had to be Wrapped and then Wormholed to Solana.
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On arrival the WPUNK NFTs were minted using Metaplex.
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They have not been deposited into Hadeswap yet or moved from the wallet.
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The original PUNKS were purchased by 2 alt accounts of @HGE.SOL throughout late 2021 and early 2022.
Bonus Fact:
- The first CryptoPunk to cross the Wormhole bridge is PUNK #9326 almost one year ago, on October 21, 2021.
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