A mysterious $7.8 million purchase of 45 CryptoPunks NFTs has reignited speculation about big-money players quietly reentering the NFT market. The buyer—a newly created wallet with no prior trading history—executed the entire acquisition within minutes, sparking a dramatic rise in floor prices and renewed momentum across top Ethereum-based collections.

Key Takeaways

• A stealth $7.8M CryptoPunks buy hints at major players quietly reentering the NFT arena.

• The purchase pushed the floor of CryptoPunks up 20% overnight.

• Ethereum’s rally past $3,770 is restoring NFT momentum and investor confidence.

• Trading volume and market capitalization have surged, echoing behavior seen in the early stages of past bull cycles.

• This wasn’t hype or airdrop-driven—just strategic conviction in blue-chip NFTs.

What Is Stealth Accumulation by Major Players?

In crypto markets, stealth accumulation refers to large-scale, quiet purchases made by high-net-worth individuals, funds, or DAOs without triggering public attention or dramatic price shifts. These moves are often executed through new wallets and avoid promotional noise, aiming to build exposure before prices climb.

In this case, the wallet address “0x1bb351…” appeared with no trading history, executed a swift $7.8M sweep of 45 CryptoPunks, and then became inactive. The lack of ties to known collectors suggests a calculated market entry—possibly by an institution or deep-pocketed investor.

The simplicity of the execution—one wallet, one burst of buys—suggests this could have been the move of a single individual. But even if that’s the case, the scale, speed, and strategic precision signal institutional-level intent. In crypto, one wallet can still represent fund-backed capital or sophisticated private investment.

To me, this feels like a textbook example of strategic whale behavior. I’ve watched enough market cycles to recognize when deep pockets are moving quietly.

Ethereum’s Rally Sets the Stage

This activity didn’t happen in isolation. Ethereum’s 50% rally over the past few weeks—pushing it past $3,770—has energized NFT markets. When ETH gains momentum, so do NFTs, which are typically priced in ETH and heavily influenced by its purchasing power.

Ethereum-based NFT volume is now clocking over $107 million per week—a 62% increase from the previous week, according to CryptoSlam. As ETH surged, the NFT market began showing signs of renewed activity. But the CryptoPunks sweep accelerated that shift.

Floor prices for CryptoPunks jumped nearly 20% in under 24 hours, hitting 47.5 ETH. Over 135 Punk sales followed in rapid succession. The broader NFT market cap crossed $6.3 billion—nearly doubling in just a few weeks.

And it wasn’t just CryptoPunks. Moonbirds, Pudgy Penguins, and even Bitcoin- and Polygon-based collections saw increased activity.

Source: CryptoPunks

Why CryptoPunks, and Why Now?

CryptoPunks are more than just NFTs—they’re considered digital artifacts in the Web3 space. As one of the earliest collections minted directly on Ethereum, they carry historical importance, visual distinctiveness, and proven market liquidity. That makes them ideal targets for long-term holds by institutions or whales betting on a broader market rebound.

I’ve always considered CryptoPunks the ‘Bitcoin’ of NFTs—not flashy, just foundational. This move reinforces that perception.

Interestingly, there was no news-driven reason for the purchase—no airdrop, no teaser campaign, no roadmap release. Instead, the move appears to be a vote of confidence. The buyer didn’t just grab a few Punks—they grabbed dozens, suggesting they saw value while others were distracted.

The timing also comes after Yuga Labs divested the CryptoPunks IP—a quiet but meaningful change that some collectors interpret as a reset moment for the collection’s governance and future. But even that wasn’t the primary driver. The move appears centered on legacy value and scarcity potential.

Ripple Effects Across the NFT Ecosystem

The impact was immediate. As CryptoPunks surged, the rest of the market followed. Daily NFT trading volume jumped to $41.4 million, while collections like Pudgy Penguins saw triple-digit volume spikes. Analysts believe the whale’s move served as both a confidence signal and a catalyst for market reactivation.

Ethereum’s strength made this shift possible—but the whale’s precise timing amplified the effect. By acting before headlines emerged, they gained early positioning and influenced market sentiment. Now, all eyes are on what happens next: additional whale entries, DAO activity, or the return of institutional NFT funds.

Conclusion

The $7.8 million CryptoPunks purchase may not have been just a flashy buy—but a message. It aligned with ETH’s rally, rising market optimism, and the psychology of blue-chip NFTs.

If I had to bet, I’d say this isn’t an isolated move. It’s a signal that smart money is testing the waters again.

Whether this marks the start of a broader bull run or a temporary uplift, one thing is clear: blue-chip NFTs like CryptoPunks are once again being considered strategic digital assets.

And someone, somewhere, is quietly betting big.

Something to look forward to: Weeks after updating its Ray-Ban smart glasses with real-time translation and other AI-powered features, Meta has unveiled a new pair in collaboration with Oakley, offering enhanced camera functionality and additional upgrades. Pre-orders begin on July 11, with the standard model starting at $399 and the limited-edition version available for $499.

The new Oakley Meta HSTN (pronounced HOW-stuhn) smart glasses combine Meta’s AI and smart glass technology with Oakley’s HSTN-style frames. Compared to Meta’s Ray-Ban Stories model, the HSTN glasses support video recording at 3K resolution, offer up to eight hours of battery life, and introduce IPX4 water resistance.

Oakley claims the glasses can last up to eight hours with typical use, and up to 19 hours on standby. The included charging case provides up to 48 hours of battery life and can recharge the glasses to 50% capacity in just 20 minutes.

However, Meta and Oakley primarily advertise the HSTN glasses by showcasing features it shares with the $299 Ray-Ban model. These include a 12MP camera that captures photos and video with a button press, as well as built-in speakers for playing music from various streaming services.

The headline feature is Meta AI integration, which was introduced with the Ray-Ban glasses last month. Like those, the Oakley glasses support real-time translation, music playback controls, and an AI assistant equipped with visual processing capabilities.

Visual processing enables Meta AI to respond to natural language commands based on what users see. It’s designed for tasks such as translating signage or offering cooking advice. A recent clip from Oakley shows golfer J.R. Smith receiving instant wind speed and direction information from the digital assistant. Meta also announced support for sending text, audio, video, and photos to contacts via Instagram.

Real-time translation is currently available in English, French, Italian, and Spanish. Language packs can be downloaded to enable offline use.

Oakley will showcase the glasses at Fanatics Fest from June 20 to 22, UFC International Fight Week from June 25 to 27, and other sporting events later this year.

Availability is expected to begin later this summer in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. The Meta HSTN glasses will also launch in Mexico, India, and the United Arab Emirates in 2025.

Available styles will include:

• Warm Grey with PRIZM Ruby Lenses
• Black with PRIZM Polar Black Lenses
• Brown Smoke with PRIZM Polar Deep Water Lenses
• Black with Transitions Amethyst Lenses
• Clear with Transitions Grey Lenses
• Black with clear Lenses

Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk’s Crypto Daybook Americas.

Telegram’s blockbuster deal with xAI, which would see Elon Musk’s AI company integrate into Telegram and the two firms share revenue, is still a work in progress despite an announcement from Pavel Durov earlier Wednesday, U.S. time, that the deal was inked.

TON, a token affiliated with Telegram’s ecosystem, is trading at $3.30, rallying there from $3 after the initial – now refuted – announcement of the partnership was made. The token is down from an earlier high of $3.68, after Elon Musk posted on X that no deal had been signed between the two companies. TON is still up 11% on the day, according to CoinDesk market data.

While Durov has now confirmed that no deal has been signed, the Telegram founder said there is an “agreement in principle” which might be why TON still has significant support at the $3.30.

All eyes will be on Telegram and xAI as the Asia business day begins to see if more clarification comes from either side.

Decentralized BlueSky isn’t a Web3 Company, Says CEO

VANCOUVER—Jay Graber, the CEO of fast-growing decentralized social media platform Bluesky, got her start in Web3 as a developer for privacy coin zCash, but she wants to keep her X competitor firmly in Web2.

Speaking at Web Summit in Vancouver on Wednesday, Graber argued blockchain technology’s permanence and resource-intensive design make it unsuitable for consumer-oriented social networks, where content is fleeting and personal.

“Why do you need your picture of what you post for lunch being maintained forever in this digital archive?” she asked on stage, highlighting the inherent scalability and cost limitations that drove her decision to avoid blockchain at Bluesky.

Graber, to be sure, isn’t against crypto. She says there’s still genuine value in the technology for things like payments and digital identity, even if sometimes Web3 often presents solutions in search of a problem, and has a trend of gravitating towards centralization.

“There’s a period where everyone was creating blockchain like this hammer, and we were just going to try blockchain for everything,” Graber said. “Every system that’s trying to do it ends up with concentrations because it’s easy, and convenience ultimately wins at the end of the day.”

For her, Bluesky’s future lies in combining the ideals of decentralization, such as user autonomy and portability, with practical, Web2 infrastructure to create a platform that prioritizes users’ needs.

“Blockchain will probably find its place somewhere in the world of technology, but Bluesky is not on a blockchain because we’re just making the best choices for our users,” she concluded.

Nvidia’s Earnings Beat Boosts Stock, Offers Modest Lift to AI Tokens

Shares of Nvidia rose roughly 4% in after-hours trading Wednesday after reporting stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings, highlighted by a 69% revenue increase from last year and a 73% jump in its data center business driven by robust demand for AI chips. Net income rose 26% to $18.8 billion, boosting Nvidia’s year-to-date performance modestly higher, CoinDesk previously reported.

The earnings report provided a slight lift to AI-related crypto tokens like Bittensor (TAO), NEAR Protocol, and Internet Computer (ICP), though gains were modest.

However, Nvidia tempered future expectations, cautioning that second-quarter revenue might fall short of market estimates due to tariff-related trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

Market Movements:

• BTC: Bitcoin dipped 1.2% to $107,800, though NYDIG sees more room for gains. At the same time, crypto markets shrugged off a U.S. court blocking Trump’s broad tariffs as unconstitutional, with BTC trading remaining muted.
• ETH: Ether is trading above $2700 as Asia begins its business day. Earlier, CoinDesk analyst Omkar Godbole wrote ETH is eying a breakout above $3,000, forming a bullish “ascending triangle” pattern with rising support and resistance at $2,735, as higher lows signal growing buying pressure and accumulation ahead of a potential price surge.
• Gold: Gold has slipped 1% to $3,267.47 amid cooling safe-haven demand, though tariff and geopolitical uncertainty linger.
• Nikkei 225: The Nikkei 225 is opening in the green, up 1%, as investors in export-reliant Japan are looking at a recent announcement that the Supreme Court has blocked Trump’s tariffs with cautious optimism, even as crypto shrugged it off.
• S&P 500: While the S&P 500 closed in the red, futures are up 1% as traders await more clarity regarding the court’s move to block Trump’s tariffs.

What just happened? For decades, scientists have puzzled over the origin of water on the Moon, a resource that could prove vital for future lunar exploration. Since the 1960s, a leading hypothesis has suggested that the Sun itself might be responsible, with its relentless stream of charged particles, known as the solar wind, interacting with the Moon’s barren surface to create water molecules. Now, a new NASA-led experiment has provided the strongest evidence yet that this process is indeed taking place, confirming a theory that could reshape how we think about using the Moon’s resources for human missions.

The breakthrough comes from researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, who set out to replicate the harsh lunar environment in the most realistic laboratory simulation to date. The Sun constantly emits the solar wind, a torrent of hydrogen protons traveling at speeds exceeding a million miles per hour. While Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere shield us from this bombardment, the Moon has no such protection. Its surface, covered in a dusty material called regolith, is fully exposed to these particles.

The process begins when solar wind protons slam into the Moon’s regolith. These protons can pick up electrons from the lunar soil, transforming into hydrogen atoms. The hydrogen then bonds with oxygen atoms abundant in the Moon’s minerals, such as silica, to form hydroxyl and, at times, water molecules.

Over the years, spacecraft have detected hydroxyl and water molecules in the Moon’s uppermost layers, but distinguishing between the two has remained challenging with current technology.

Lead researcher Li Hsia Yeo and colleague Jason McLain designed a custom experimental chamber to test whether the solar wind could truly be the source. This setup allowed them to bombard actual lunar soil, which was collected during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, with a beam simulating the solar wind.

Before the experiment, the samples were baked to remove any water that might have been absorbed since their return to Earth, ensuring that any new water detected would be the result of their test alone.

The team’s apparatus was unique because it kept the lunar dust sealed in a vacuum throughout the experiment, preventing contamination from Earth’s atmosphere. Over several days, they exposed the samples to a high dose of mock solar wind, equivalent to 80,000 years of lunar exposure.

Using a spectrometer to measure how the dust reflected light, they detected a distinct dip in the infrared spectrum, specifically near three microns – the signature where water absorbs energy. This finding indicated that hydroxyl and water molecules had formed in the lunar samples, validating the decades-old theory.

The implications of this discovery are far-reaching. Not only does it confirm that solar wind is a major driver of water formation on the Moon, but it also suggests that this process is ongoing.

Observations show that the Moon’s water-related spectral signal fluctuates daily, peaking in the cool morning and fading as the surface warms, only to return as the surface cools again at night. This daily cycle points to an active, replenishing source – most likely the solar wind – rather than sporadic events like micrometeorite impacts.

These findings are especially significant for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustained human presence at the Moon’s South Pole. Much of the Moon’s water is thought to be locked in ice within permanently shadowed craters at the poles. If the Sun’s particles continually create water, lunar soil itself could become a renewable resource for drinking water, oxygen, and even rocket fuel, supporting longer and more ambitious missions.

A new bill is making its way through the US Congress, in a bid to stop politicians from launching their own cryptocurrency coins. This move comes after many investors lost money big-time on the TRUMP meme coin, which is associated with US President Donald Trump. The coin’s wild ride has made people wonder if politicians should be allowed to create and promote these kinds of financial assets.

The Rise And Fall Of TRUMP Coin

Last month, the TRUMP meme coin and another coin linked to Melania Trump became instant sensations. Both quickly hit huge milestones, boasting multi-billion-dollar valuations just hours after they debuted.

But the excitement didn’t last. The price of TRUMP coin took a nosedive. It fell more than 80% from its highest point. Many people who bought the coin ended up losing a lot of money. This situation has caught the attention of regulators and finance officials.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE MEME ACT TO BAN OFFICIALS FROM PROMOTING CRYPTO MEME COINS

– In response to President Donald Trump’s recent launch of a meme coin, House Democrats have introduced the Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement (MEME) Act.

– This legislation aims to… pic.twitter.com/cu4gM2o9wY

— BSCN (@BSCNews) February 27, 2025

A New Law Called The MEME Act

California Rep. Sam Liccardo is leading the charge with a new bill. It’s called the MEME Act, which stands for Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement Act. The idea is simple: stop the President, Vice President, members of Congress, high-ranking government officials, and their families from endorsing, issuing, or sponsoring financial assets, including meme coins.

Liccardo believes that the Trump family took advantage of their political position to make money off these cryptocurrencies. He argues that they used their influence for personal gain. The goal of this law is to keep federal officials from profiting from digital assets. This includes things like stocks or cryptocurrencies. This is important because it could create conflicts of interest or open the door to corruption.

Worries About Trading And Foreign Influence

Liccardo is concerned about the possibility of insider trading. Also, he is worried about foreign influence over US politics. Cryptocurrencies have a global reach, which makes them vulnerable. The MEME Act is designed to prevent federal officials from using their positions to profit from these assets, thus keeping their interests aligned with the public good.

For example, if a politician knows about upcoming regulations that could affect the price of a cryptocurrency, they could use that information to make a profit before the public knows. This is unfair and erodes trust in government.

What’s Next For The Bill?

The MEME Act faces a tough road ahead. Republicans currently control both the House and the Senate. This means it will be difficult for the bill to gain support. However, Liccardo is determined to keep pushing the bill forward. He hopes to get wider support if Democrats gain a majority in the future.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView