On Monday, leading NFT marketplace OpenSea announced the launch of a $1 million reserve dedicated to the purchase of “culturally significant” non-fungible tokens.
The platform has already made its first purchase under this initiative, acquiring CryptoPunk #5273, one of the most iconic NFTs from the first profile picture collection (PFP) on Ethereum.
“For us, culturally significant NFTs are those works that have had an impact, whether creative, social, or technological,” explained Adam Hollander, OpenSea’s Chief Marketing Officer. “These could be turning points in NFT history, new artistic directions, or works by artists whose voices haven’t yet received due recognition.”
According to on-chain data, CryptoPunk #5273 was purchased on August 25th for 65 ETH, which was worth approximately $283,000 at the time. OpenSea plans to continue expanding its collection in the coming months. Decisions on further acquisitions will be made jointly by a cross-functional team of platform employees and external experts in the digital art field.
The CryptoPunks collection, created in June 2017 by Larva Labs, is currently valued at $2.1 billion according to NFTPriceFloor.
While interest in creating NFT reserves is expected to grow in 2025, such initiatives are still rare. They also carry increased risks for investors: NFTs have low liquidity compared to fungible tokens and can be difficult to sell during market downturns.
“This is not a one-time campaign, but a living collection that will evolve with the NFT ecosystem,” Hollander emphasized.
Against this backdrop, the NFT market is showing a slowdown in growth: according to CryptoSlam, weekly sales volume in the first week of September fell to $92 million, down from $115-$170 million in July and August. Several major players, including Bybit, Kraken, and GameStop, have already closed their NFT marketplaces due to the decline in activity. Meanwhile, OpenSea launched a token trading platform in May, seeking to diversify its business, and Magic Eden acquired crypto trading app Slingshot in April for a similar purpose.
