CO-AUTHOR/CO-EDITOR. PHAIDON. 2024
A comprehensive monograph chronicling the phenomenal rise of CryptoPunks – one of the world’s first and most sought-after crypto collectibles and trailblazer for digital art and web3 culture.
CryptoPunks: Free to Claim explores the meteoric rise of a pre-eminent NFT collectible: what began as an experiment in digital ownership has become the catalyst for a digital art movement and a dynamic subculture synonymous with a new age of the internet.
Minted on the Ethereum blockchain in 2017, the CryptoPunks – 10,000 uniquely generated pixel characters – have produced more than $2.3 billion in cumulative sales and entered the permanent collections of major institutions including LACMA and Centre Pompidou, meanwhile fostering a passionate and decentralized online community.
When Yuga Labs began working on a book to help carve out a place for CryptoPunks in the story of art history they contacted a number of people to ask for contributions. After a few conversations with Natalie Stone, managing director of CryptoPunks at Yuga and project lead I was invited to take on a larger editorial role, taking full ownership of the “group chat” section and assisting with copy and direction throughout the rest of the book. I worked closely with Yuga Labs and Zak Group on big picture vision and sorted through over 20,000 screen shots and text messages to try and retell the story of the first 7 years of the project through the lens of the community who kept it going. -s