In the world of crypto, if something can be sold, you can bet it will be. This was evident this week when a simple yellow legal pad with the words “Buy Bitcoin” scribbled on it fetched a staggering 16 bitcoin, equivalent to over $1 million. The legal pad gained fame when it was held up behind then-Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen during a 2017 Congressional hearing, becoming an iconic symbol in the Bitcoin community. The auction for this piece of memorabilia took place at PubKey, a popular New York City bar among Bitcoin enthusiasts.
Another noteworthy sale this week was the auction of the first satoshi from a block mined post Bitcoin’s recent halving event by the crypto exchange CoinEx. Satoshis, known as sats, are the smallest units of Bitcoin and have gained popularity with Ordinals being inscribed on them. CoinEx secured access to the satoshi through a partnership with mining pool ViaBTC, and it ultimately sold for a whopping $2.1 million, doubling the amount raised by the “Buy Bitcoin” legal pad.
In addition to these sales, another CryptoPunk fetched a significant price tag this week, marking the third time since March that a CryptoPunk sold for over $10 million. This time, Punk #635 sold for $12.41 million, ranking as the fourth-highest punk sale to date. The recent surge in alien punk sales has been notable, with Punk #635 being one of nine CryptoPunks out of the 10,000 with blue-ish skin. The new owner of this punk expressed their belief in the future of NFTs as a form of ownership.
On the investment front, crypto-focused VC firm Stratos reported a remarkable 300x return on their investment in the memecoin DogWifHat during Q1. Additionally, some interesting developments included Blockworks purchasing a goat, Web3 restaurant loyalty app Blackbird selling free coffee passes in NYC, and the increasing popularity of Bitcoin Runes leading miners to earn more from fees than block rewards for the first time ever. These diverse transactions highlight the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of the crypto industry.
