"CryptoPunk #9998" sold for $500 million? Owner artificially inflated price with lightning loan to attract attention
Following the record-breaking bid of 2,500 ETH for "CryptoPunk #6046" previously, #9998 has set a new record with a bid of 124,457.07 ETH, worth over 530 million US dollars. However, this appears to be a staged marketing stunt as #9998 was promptly transferred back to the original owner's another address after the sale.
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$530 Million, 14.7 Billion TWD NFT
According to CryptoPunks Bot records, CryptoPunk #9998 was sold successfully for 124,457.07 ETH at 07:50 on October 29th Taipei time:
- Seller address: 0x8e398349ee56c198885dde7344fab86d65bd4278
- Buyer address: 0x9b5a5c5800c91af9c965b3bf06ad29caa6d00f9b
This price significantly surpasses the transaction price of 4,200 ETH for CryptoPunk #7804 back in March this year. However, the crypto community quickly caught on. Ethereum developer and former smart contract lead at MakerDAO, Mariano Conti, pointed out that this was a play orchestrated by the NFT holder through a flash loan.
Flash Loan Price Manipulation
Mariano Conti outlined the process:
- Buyer 0x9b gathered a flash loan of 124,457 ETH from multiple sources
- Buyer 0x9b sent 124,457 ETH to the CryptoPunk contract
- The CryptoPunk contract transferred 124,457 ETH to seller 0x8e
- Seller 0x8e returned all ETH to buyer 0x9b
- Buyer 0x9b repaid the flash loan
you can see it here:
0x9b5a flash loans 124,457 ETH from many sources
0x9b5a pays 124,457 ETH to the punk contract
punk contract sends it to 0x8e39
0x8e39 sends back to 0x9b5a
0x9b5a repays loangenius 😄https://t.co/nlo24twyEx pic.twitter.com/suPOMHRV7O
— mariano.eth ✨ᕙ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ᕗ✨ | 🦇🔊 (@nanexcool) October 29, 2021
Fun? Price Manipulation?
According to Larva Labs, CryptoPunk #9998 ultimately moved back to the original address of the owner who acquired it on 8/11, but oddly, the final address transfer 0xef764b also included a flash loan contract that needed to be completed in the same block, as if to make it clear that this was a one-man show.
As shown in the image above, the owner purchased #9998 with 110 ETH on 8/11 and after some actions today, is now quoting it at 250,000 ETH.
Perhaps from the start, he intended to blatantly manipulate the price through a flash loan to increase the visibility of the NFT, #9998. According to on-chain data from the flash loan contract, the transaction cost was only 0.197435 ETH, approximately $858.
Now that CryptoPunk #9998 is well-known, it seems to be a cost-effective marketing stunt.
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