2838

In 2018 ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe acquired 4 CryptoPunks for their permanent collection. Punks 2838 & 5449 were accidentally sent to the punks contract address by ZKM employee Daniel Heiss as a result of copying the wrong address while attempting to transfer them. In a 2022 interview with The Art Newspaper, Heiss reframed the error into “a statement about what blockchain” and asking “maybe [ownership] is less about being able to trade the work, and more about establishing a chain of provenance.” In 2025 these two burned punks were displayed at ZKM in their The Story That Never Ends exhibition alongside punks 1286 & 2554 which remain part of the institutions collection - wall text noting the burn and discussing what that means for digital ownership and permanence.