Sotheby's NFT lead joins Yuga Labs as head of the CryptoPunks brand

Noah Davis, the head of NFT at Christie's, announced on the 19th that he will be joining Yuga Labs as the brand leader of the flagship NFT project CryptoPunks. In the days leading up to this announcement, the price and trading volume of CryptoPunks have both seen growth, and Yuga Labs co-founder Garga also announced on the same day that there will be new developments for CryptoPunks in the coming weeks.

Noah Davis Leads CryptoPunks

Noah was responsible for the auction of Beeple's artwork "EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS" in March last year, which ultimately sold for $69 million, shocking the NFT and art world at the time and making Beeple one of the most famous NFT creators today.

Upon announcing that he would be the brand leader of CryptoPunks, Noah stated that he would not mess it up by printing Punks on lunch boxes or creating terrible TV shows or movies for them. This means there will be no rush to add utility to Punks or distribute airdrops arbitrarily.

"I can't overstate how incredible this journey from the old art world to Web3 has been. I'm excited to see where the road ahead leads, knowing only that it will be wild and weird. I love it this way, Punks will keep moving forward, Long live Punks!" Noah said.

At the same time as Noah's announcement, Garga, co-founder of Yuga Labs, also shared his thoughts on CryptoPunks on Twitter. Garga mentioned that when they acquired Punks from Larva Labs, they had two things in mind: first, to hand over the commercial power of Punks to the holders, similar to BAYC, with new terms set to be released in the coming weeks.

The second thing was to "listen." Garga believed that the Punks community shared their vision of the project as an artwork, and in order to manage the development of Punks well, they sought out Noah. Noah has no hasty vision for Punks and will take a slow and thoughtful approach.

"Honestly, these are too important to rush, and the impact on the entire NFT community is too significant to risk developing them without proper communication." Garga said.

Driving Up CryptoPunks Prices

According to data from NFT GO, two days before the announcement, the floor price and trading volume of CryptoPunks had significantly increased, with the floor price rising by about 40% and the trading volume tripling. The cheapest Punks are currently priced at around 66.7 ETH, approximately $72,000.

Furthermore, this news also led to a surge in trading volume for Noah's NFT project HOWLERZ, with the floor price growing by over 4 times. This project features 5000 hand-drawn wild wolves in different styles, with the cheapest priced at around 0.23 ETH, approximately $250.