Indonesian ‘Selfie Guy’ Banks $1.8M, CryptoPunks Nets $16M: Nifty Newsletter

Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, the Indonesian man who made a name for himself in 2022 by selling nonfungible token (NFT) selfies, is making a comeback through a new project that combines NFTs and memecoins. Ghozali recently announced the project and its details, along with a presale address. Within days, the presale address had accumulated 527 Ether (ETH), equivalent to approximately $1.8 million. Ghozali has stated that he will refund any amount that exceeds the 400-ETH cap he set for the project.

Asset management company BlackRock has received memecoins and NFTs after depositing $100 million in USDC (a stablecoin) on-chain. Crypto enthusiasts discovered one of BlackRock’s wallets was connected to a new tokenization fund after the company made a filing to launch its BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund. As a result, users sent various tokens and NFTs to the labeled BlackRock address on Etherscan. Among these tokens were Bitcoin Ordinals’ Pepe coin and a “CryptoDickbutts S3” NFT.

Pixelmon, a crypto project that was once ridiculed as the “worst NFT project,” is making a comeback by embracing fractionalized NFTs. The CEO of Pixelmon, Giulio Xiloyannis, revealed in an interview that they plan to revamp the project’s artworks, excluding the popular NFT piece called “Kevin.” The new version of Pixelmon will be free to play but will incorporate Web3 elements. NFT holders will have the opportunity to earn royalties when their NFTs are used outside the game. Traders can also own fractions of NFTs and earn profits based on the percentage they own.

The popular NFT collection CryptoPunks set another record with a $16 million sale in March. CryptoPunk #7804 was sold for 4,850 ETH on March 20, equivalent to approximately $16.4 million at the time. The long-time owner bid farewell and described the sale as the “end of an era.” The NFT was originally purchased in 2021 for 4,200 ETH, worth around $7.5 million.

Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, BlackRock, Pixelmon, and CryptoPunks have all made significant waves in the NFT and cryptocurrency space, and their recent developments highlight the growing popularity and potential of this emerging market.