V1 CryptoPunks: Original Vs Official
August 22, 2025
When collectors talk about the history of NFTs, they usually start with CryptoPunks. The initial release of this collection by Larva Labs in 2017 put digital collectibles on the map. It's fair to say that crypto culture wouldn't be what it is today without CryptoPunks. What you may not know is that there were actually two versions of this collection: the original release—what we now call V1 Punks—and the later V2 Punks, which has come to be known as the “official” collection.
CryptoPunk 4043 V1 (left) and V2 (right)
The Story of the V1 Punks
The V1 Punks were the first release of CryptoPunks. 10,000 punks were minted directly from Larva Labs’ smart contract on June 9th 2017. Due to a bug in the contract, buyers could withdraw their ETH after purchase, leaving sellers unpaid. Larva Labs responded by depreciating the V1 contract and redeploying the project with a new contract on June 23rd, airdropping the V2 punks. This V2 version is now universally known as CryptoPunks.
Importantly, both versions are tied to the same hash and images, so they reference the exact same art.
As time went on, V1 Punks were largely forgotten, until a group of NFT historians began to dive deeper into the collection. What they found inspired the development of a new wrapper, an innovation that would fundamentally change how V1s could be traded and appreciated.
As more and more wrapped V1 Punks began changing hands, some critical observers viewed them as flawed or unofficial. The narrative around V1s was largely shaped by fear of broken contracts, legal ambiguity, and the perception that they were “less than” the widely recognized V2s.
Bridging the Divide
While the launch of the wrapper (developed by FrankNFT) fixed the practical problems with V1, the real turning point in the CryptoPunks community has come out of community dialogue.
Sean Bonner and others published detailed explainers addressing misconceptions about the project. Thought leaders and collectors amplified their perspectives on social media. Over time, collectors of both V1s and V2s began to recognize that they were not competing, but rather complementing one another.
On Reddit and Twitter, discussions that began as arguments turned into thoughtful exchanges about provenance, history, and cultural significance.
We asked Sean to weigh in on how the dynamics between the V1 and V2 communities have shifted through the years, here’s his perspective.
“I wrote about this a lot in FREE TO CLAIM. 2021 and 2022 were insane years with tons of other drama for CryptoPunks - high prices, IP wars, unplanned attention, demands from communities, lawsuits, fights, etc... and the V1 wrapper came out in the middle of that, so got lumped into it. Before 2021 whenever V1s were mentioned there was no concern or drama. There's a massive overlap of V1/V2 owners and the incorrect assumption that they are two separate groups is where a lot of the problems come from. The work done here to stop people from talking shit and attacking V2 holders, and the work done in the V2 discord to stop people from talking shit and attacking V1 holders has gone a long way.”
United As One
Today, the official V2s remain the cultural icons they have always been. They're the face of CryptoPunks in mainstream art and media. But behind the scenes, among discerning collectors, V1 punks have found place as fascinating historical artifacts, tokens that capture the messy, experimental energy of Ethereum’s earliest days.
Both are part of the same lineage. Both reference the same images. Both have passionate communities. And increasingly, those communities are being recognized as two sides of the same coin.
Rather than a “V1 vs V2” battle, the conversation has evolved into two connected communities: the Original and the Official. Together, they reinforce the significance of CryptoPunks. They're not just collectibles. They're milestones in digital culture.
