OpenSea delists V1 version of CryptoPunks collection

When the CryptoPunks collection was originally launched in 2017, it was soon discovered that the smart contract defining the collection contained a bug

The dominant Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea has delisted the V1 version of the famous CryptoPunks collection after receiving a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice from Punks’ creators Larva Labs. As OpenSea owns nearly 90% of the NFT market, the delisting puts a serious limit to where CryptoPunks V1 can be traded.

CryptoPunks V1 was the original collection of CryptoPunks, and thus they are not fakes in common sense, and they continue to exist as a ‘wrapped’ edition of what is now considered the real CryptoPunks (V2) collection.

When the CryptoPunks collection was originally launched in 2017, it was soon discovered that the smart contract defining the collection contained a bug. The bug allowed buyers to instantly withdraw the ether (ETH) they used to purchase the Punks, leaving sellers with no profits.

To mitigate the issue, Larva Labs developed a new contract, V2, from scratch, and thus mending the bug. The old and buggy contract, however, continued to run on the Ethereum blockchain, as smart contracts do, and developers simply fixed the code error and launched what is now known as the V1 CryptoPunks collection. From its name to the artwork itself, the project is nearly identical to Larva Labs’ V2 punk NFTs. The big difference is the price between the two collections.

When Larva Labs introduced the V2 version, OpenSea banned the sales of V1 Punks as these were considered inauthentic. Recently, however, OpenSea made a turn in the matter and listed V1 Punks again as the original collection made a come-back as a wrapped Punks version and the buggy code fixed.