Unique Network, an NFT infrastructure project on Polkadot, has purchased Cryptopunk #3042. It will fractionalize this single and popular NFT into a hundred thousand pieces, in order to demonstrate the value of blockchain interoperability. Cryptopunks, the original pfp project that brought billions to the NFT market, have held their status as the ‘genesis’ crypto art of blockchain technology, which proved the utility of NFTs to the global economy.
While very popular, CryptoPunks have also come to epitomise the inaccessibility and unsustainability surrounding Ethereum.
Unique Network is poised to make a huge leap to show that Etherueum is not the only platform and moreover NFTs purchased on Ethereum can be ported to other accessible, transactionless and carbon neutral plaforms.
“Three years ago when we started Unique Network, it was with a vision to bring the tools needed for the worldwide mass adoption of NFTs. With this campaign, we are showing to the world new ownership models by showing them something radical and paradigm-shifting. We are taking the globally recognized Cryptopunks and democratizing access to them,” said Unique Network CEO, Alexander Mitrovich.
The fractionalization of high-value assets is common in traditional markets for things like housing, cars, and shares. This enables an investor to expose their portfolio to an expensive asset without having to own it outright, and allows for individuals to share in the risk/reward of dividing an asset that is volatile.
Refungibility lowers the barrier to entry for newcomers to blockchain, who don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy into this asset class. The minimum price for a Cryptopunk today is $150,000, providing a perfect example of a digital asset that is ideal to fractionalize. This is the primary reason why Unique Network has chosen this asset, with plans to anthropomorphize the Cryptopunk into a narrative storytelling device that the new owners of the fractionalized Punks can benefit from.
“Unique Network is demonstrating more than just the tech of fractionalizing an NFT, it’s also providing a blueprint for bonafide community growth for Web3. By airdropping the newly fractionalized Cryptopunk for free to whomever joins our community, we are eliminating the barrier to entry for those who want to be a part of the Cryptopunk movement. There are millions of people who identify with this trend but only 10,000 punks exist. How are they considered punk if only millionaires have access to them?” said Greg Zaitsev, CTO at Unique Network.