CryptoPunk NFT sold for over $500 million in suspicious sale

In what would rank as one of the most expensive sales in the history of NFTs, a CryptoPunk NFT has just been sold for over $500 million, though analysts have begun to raise questions about the legitimacy of the sale.

CryptoPunk 9998 sold for over $500 million

According to the CryptoPunk sales feed, the said NFT CryptoPunk #9998 was sold for $532 million, which means it is the most expensive sale in the history of Cryptopunks.

While this is supposed to be celebrated, the crypto community has met the unusual transaction with doubt, speculating that there could be a kind of manipulation in the sale. 

Members of the community have pointed out that the new buyer and the previous holder could be the same individual because the CryptoPunk NFT was sold back to the original address that was holding it previously.

Another school of thought believes that the purchase could have been made through a flash loan. If this was the case, it means the sale of the NFT might have been reversed.

A similar case had happened earlier in the year when this method was used to purchase an NFT which left the holder with an intangible amount of the sales price.

Crypto community reacts

With the intention of the buyer and holder unclear, some have speculated that this could just be someone having fun.

You can borrow as long as you guarantee to pay it back within the same transaction. This person borrowed 500M DAI and a ton of ETH and then paid it back while simultaneously purchasing the crypto punk.

— Buzz (@buzz_strong) October 29, 2021

Buzz, in trying to rationalize the sale, stated that it was a flash loan. According to him, “This person borrowed 500M DAI and a ton of ETH and then paid it back while simultaneously purchasing the crypto punk.”

The view of Buzz was also shared by @nanexcool who explained the sale as a flash loan.

This is so good ?

– Flash loan as much as you can
– List your punk for an insane amount of $ETH
– Buy it
– Other account gives you the ETH back
– Repayhttps://t.co/nlo24twyEx https://t.co/7CLhYAHKb8

— mariano.eth ✨ᕙ༼?༽ᕗ✨ | ?? (@nanexcool) October 28, 2021

However, popular Twitter user David Lark does not share the view. According to him, it is a case of money laundering as he  tweeted “Now that is money laundering.”

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