The launch of a new project, NFT COVIDPunks, burned $ 1.5 million worth of ETH in less than an hour. Ethereum congestion caused users to lose 174 ETH in fees due to failed transactions.
Ethereum users lost just over 174 ETH (about $ 490,000) during the COVIDPunks non-fungible token release. This new NFT collection is based on the famous CryptoPunks.
COVIDPunks is a collection of 10,000 randomly generated, low-resolution avatars depicting medical masked punks. The original CryptoPunks have become so popular with collectors that the cheapest NFT in the collection is now worth over $ 100,000 in ETH.
COVIDPunks began rolling out on August 5 at approximately 8:00 p.m. ET, and in less than an hour, all 10,000 NFTs were sold out. It is noteworthy that the launch of the project coincided with the latest Ethereum update – the London hard fork, which activated the burning of ETH.
WE ARE LIVE!
Mint now at https://t.co/lgEla2OqtR pic.twitter.com/XkMopZTjHy
— COVIDPunks (@COVIDPunksNFT) August 5, 2021
According to the ETH burn tracker Ultrasound.money, COVIDPunks instantly became the largest “ETH burner”, destroying 525 ETH (about $ 1.5 million) during the NFT release.
Ethereum projects that destroyed the most ETH. Source: Ultrasound.money
The NFT issue also increased the burn rate to 14 ETH ($ 40,000) per minute as Ethereum’s emission rate dropped to -4.7 ETH per minute. This means that in about an hour, the total ETH supply actually shrank as more coins were burned than mined.
During the release of COVIDPunks, the Ethereum network experienced a congestion. Transaction fees skyrocketed from 70 Gwei ($ 5.8) to over 400 Gwei ($ 33). Due to such congestion, many of the transactions that were sent to issue COVIDPunks have failed, and Ethereum lacks a gas refund system.
Potential CryptoPunks buyers lost 174.39 ETH ($ 489,868) due to failed transactions, according to Dune Analytics data obtained using a special tool designed to calculate losses due to failed transactions.
A similar situation happened recently with another NFT project. The sale of Stoner Cats tokens resulted in users losing $ 790,000 due to failed transactions on the Ethereum network last week.
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