Beeple’s CryptoPunks marketing stunt briefly pumps Nakamigos NFTs

Both Hall and Beeple also signed flyers, however, these used pictures from the Nakamigos collection, a separate NFT project based on CryptoPunks. These flyers also rained down from the sky after the AI video was finished.

This led some to believe that the Nakamigos were in fact the “launched” V-0 Cryptopunks, and the collection’s trading volume and price in ether (ETH) duly shot up by 1,782% and 127% respectively.

However, when news spread that it was a joke, the price tumbled by 57% and returned to a roughly pre-pump 0.189 ETH.

Beeple then doubled down on the joke by releasing an apology video that ridiculed anyone who previously fell for the stunt. He listed multiple telltale signs that it was joke, and said he would make things right at the URL “I’mafuckingretard.com.”