Luxury auction firm Sotheby'due south fabricated waves on social media on Th following the sale of one rare CryptoPunk.

In a tweet from Sotheby's, the auction said CryptoPunk #7523 — likewise known every bit "COVID Alien" — sold in its London salesroom for roughly $xi.8 million. According to the auction house, this sale represents a new world record for a single CryptoPunk artwork.

CryptoPunks, which predate the majority of the nonfungible token (NFT) craze in 2021, are ofttimes minor, pixelated depictions of people, apes, zombies and aliens. Sotheby's announced the sale of the COVID Alien in tardily May as a "special, standalone" auction. The artwork features an alien wearing a face mask.

On-chain information shows that someone purchased the CryptoPunk for 8 Ether (ETH) in a public sale in 2017 — a fraction of the sale price today. However, concluding calendar month New York-based sale business firm Christie's sold 9 CryptoPunks for almost $17 million, implying in that location is all the same strong interest from many buyers for these pieces.

"Punks were designed as pseudonymous portraits, masks for those crypto pioneers that value the thought of privacy in the modern age," said Sotheby'south in an overview of the auction. "Avatars, portraits or masks, they stand up as semiotic reference points to a specific internet crypto native identity that now spreads itself across social networks — particularly Twitter. More than is said by a Punk every bit a profile picture than a portrait of the private backside the account."

Related: Sotheby's moves $ten million CryptoPunk to solo auction event

The NFT collector "Sillytuna," who endemic the COVID Alien prior to the sale, previously told Cointelegraph that he acquired the digital collectible in an over-the-counter deal. He took to Twitter immediately after the sale to announce that "NFTs are DEAD" and hinted he may have already used some of the funds to make another artwork buy.