Today, XPUNKS, the project that started the XRP NFT craze in 2021, announced its departure from the XRPL, heading for the greener pastures of Solana. A video released by XPUNKS, in which the
XPUNKS might be the biggest NFT project you’ve never heard of. XPUNKS gained significant notoriety in 2021 by releasing an IOU token on the XRPL and spearheading the release of the upcoming NFT amendment. In addition to inventing tokenized whitelisting, XPUNKS has achieved a whopping $100 million market cap at its ATH and is still responsible for over 35% of all NFT-related volume on Ripple. In the two years that followed, XPUNKS remained a staple of XRP NFTs.
The project has often described itself as a project with no predefined tools that likes to build cool things. Since its inception, XPUNKS has engaged in a variety of different projects and marketing campaigns. Recently, they became the first full generative collection to reach the surface of the real moon, for example piggybacking on the IM-1 mission. XPUNKS also operates the largest XRP NFT marketplace, currently expanding to Cosmos under the name bidds and building a gaming metaverse called Eden: Discovery.
While the move to Solana may seem sudden to some, those who had been following the project more closely should have seen it coming. One can point to stifling ecosystem politics, hostile behavior towards NFT projects by RippleX, and a general lack of interest in XRP NFTs by the broader crypto community. What seems most likely, however, is that XPUNKS is simply looking for a more mature NFT/degen culture that Solana is full of.
Much remains to be revealed about what XPUNKS plans to do to gain traction over Solana after the bridge goes live. But knowing the team and their track record, this move and their action plan have likely been in the works for a long time. Whether you plan on grabbing one or not, it certainly won’t be boring keeping an eye on what this project is up to.
