It all started with a few lines of code, without any sensational release or roadmap. In early 2018, Robi, the founder of the now-defunct early experimental NFT infrastructure platform Ark.Gallery, built a tool aimed at solving a growing problem in the NFT world.
CryptoPunks is a generative art series created by web3 studio Larva Labs in 2017, consisting of 10,000 pieces. However, it was not compatible with markets like OpenSea; they were launched before the ERC-721 token standard and relied on custom smart contracts, making them operate independently from the ever-expanding NFT ecosystem on Ethereum. This made it harder to buy, sell, or integrate into new platforms.