MoMA adds CryptoPunks and Chromie Squiggles NFTs to permanent collection following coordinated donation

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has acquired eight CryptoPunks and eight Chromie Squiggles for its permanent collection, marking one of the most significant institutional endorsements of onchain art to date.

The 16 works, all donated rather than purchased, will be housed in MoMA's Media and Performance department alongside video, experimental technology, and other new media art. The works can be viewed on MoMA's website. 

The CryptoPunks entering the collection are #74, #2786, #3407, #4018, #5160, #5616, #7178, and #7899. Larva Labs founders Matt Hall and John Watkinson donated Punks #74 and #5160, while other contributors included Mara and Erick Calderon (CryptoPunk #2786), Rhydon and Caroline Lee (#3407), Ryan Zurrer of 1OF1 AG (#4018), judithESSS (#5616), the Tomaino Family (#7178), and the Cozomo de' Medici Collection (#7899).

The Chromie Squiggles acquisition was similarly organized through community donations. Contributors included SquiggleDAO, gmoneyNFT, jdh, VonMises14, and several anonymous collectors, according to 1OF1_art, which helped coordinate both donations. The organization thanked MoMA curators Stuart Comer and Michelle Kuo for their support of the acquisition in an X post.

CryptoPunks, created by Larva Labs in 2017, is widely considered one of the earliest NFT projects and helped establish the template for profile-picture collections that followed. The 10,000 algorithmically generated 24-by-24 pixel avatars predate the ERC-721 token standard that would later define NFTs on Ethereum.

Chromie Squiggles, the genesis collection from generative art platform Art Blocks, was launched by Erick Calderon (known as Snowfro) in November 2020. The collection of 10,000 generative artworks served as the foundation for Art Blocks, which at its peak recorded over $587 million in monthly sales in August 2021, according to CryptoSlam data.

The acquisition follows a series of moves to embed CryptoPunks in major art institutions. In May, Yuga Labs sold the CryptoPunks intellectual property to the Infinite Node Foundation, a nonprofit focused on preserving digital art. The foundation, chaired by investor Micky Malka, announced plans to "embed them in leading art institutions worldwide" as part of its stewardship program.

The timing coincides with renewed interest in blue-chip NFTs. CryptoPunks saw their highest weekly trading volume since March 2024 in late July, with over $24.6 million changing hands, according to The Block's data. However, the total market capitalization of CryptoPunks, which reached nearly $2.5 billion this year, is now around $763 million, per CoinGecko data.