On October 16, global publishing company Phaidon announced the publication of the book “CryptoPunks: Free to Claim.” The book was written by creative director Zak Kyes, web3 lifestyle and media company Yuga Labs, and designed by Zak Group.

The book will be available to order in December for $100 USD, $135 Canadian, £49.95 and €89.95. A limited version of the book, with the word “HOLDER” printed on the side, will be available for CryptoPunk owners.

This book will be the first book of its kind to showcase 10,000 unique CryptoPunk non-fungible token characters compiled in print and will include each Punk’s type, attributes, pixel color and on-chain data in the form of an “Image Hash”.

Artist Simon Denny designed each Punk with mini icons placed on the pages; these pages were made from removable ink paper. The book features a comprehensive timeline woven with excerpts from community members’ posts and timestamped tweets.

“CryptoPunks: Free to Claim” also includes interviews with key figures who played an important role in the rise of CryptoPunks, such as founders Matt Hall and John Watkinson and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrich.

Additionally, the book’s glossary is filled with over a hundred web3 terms provided by industry pioneers like Beeple, Emily Segal, and Venkatesh Rao.

Some of the leading names in digital art, design and fashion wrote text or designed images for this book; these names include Anika Meier, Gmoney, Mindy Seu, Chris Lyons (a16z), Salome Asega or NEW INC, New Models, Shumon Basar, Martina Tiefenthaler, Michael Connor or Rhizome, Jack Butcher and 6529. This book aims to capture the rich history of these digital icons through texts, interviews, and visual essays that demonstrate CryptoPunks’ broad cultural impact in crypto art and how they will remain important in the future.

CryptoPunks was first released on June 23, 2017 and is a set of 10,000 unique 24 x 24 pixel avatars inspired by the 80s London punk scene and 90s cyberpunk.

CryptoPunks started as NFTs that could be “claimed for free,” which explains the book’s title. Due to high demand, CryptoPunks began to be purchased and sold as digital collectibles, with prices ranging from thousands of dollars to millions of dollars for a piece. Since its launch, Punks have sold more than $2.3 billion in total.

Some CryptoPunks have sold for millions of dollars at auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s and are included in permanent collections at art institutions such as ICA Miami, Center Pompidou and LACMA.