A rare Ape-trait CryptoPunk just sold for pennies on the dollar through a sneaky purchase loophole. CryptoPunk 2386, worth an estimated $3.2 million based on an offer that was rejected in February 2023, was scooped up at a 99% discount for roughly $23,000. The Punk in question was originally fractionalized through the now-defunct NFT platform NIFTEX. After being split into 10,000 shares in September 2020, the Punk remained in an escrow wallet that represented the shares after NIFTEX’s shutdown. NIFTEX fractionalized NFTs can only be bought out by a single entity after undergoing a 14-day grace period in which shareholders can choose to reject offers. The buyer, wallet 0x351, proposed a buyout at a price of 0.001 per share for a total of 10 ETH, and after 14 days passed with no rejection votes, the sale went through. The new owner is a quiet wallet, and its first transaction onchain was being transferred four CryptoPunks. The wallet was originally exclusively used for storing Punks and didn’t even have any ETH until May 2021, when it was funded with ETH in order to mint Meebits, the voxel collection from Larva Labs, the original creators of CryptoPunks and Autoglyphs. While the buyer is surely ecstatic, the previous shareholders have now taken a huge loss, and the sale is likely to spark some fears amongst proponents of fractionalized NFTs. Justin Trimble, founder of Braindrops, said, “Life isn't fair, but this ape selling for 10 ETH out from under the co-owners feels exploitative (1,400 ETH offer was rejected in the past). Multiple reasons to be cautious about participating in fractionalized assets now. Feel very sorry for the holders. Be careful out there.” This is now the fourth rare punk to change hands in the last three days, with a “hoodie-zombie” selling for $1.3 million, a “hoodie-3d glasses” selling for $700,000, and a “beanie” Punk selling for $280,000 recently. The uptick in rare Punk sales comes alongside a resurgence in art-focused NFTs, as other market sectors such as XCOPY, and AI Art have also had a strong week.