# Larva Labs

> Studio of Matt Hall and John Watkinson, creators of CryptoPunks, Autoglyphs and Meebits, early experiments in NFT ownership and onchain generative art.

- Page: https://www.gondi.xyz/artist/larva-labs
- Works on GONDI: 36,581
- Collectors: 10,535
- About page: https://www.gondi.xyz/artist/larva-labs/about

## About

Matt Hall and John Watkinson met at university in the 1990s, where both studied computer science, and they have run Larva Labs together since 2005. Both are Canadian. Their software projects include VR games, chat apps and *Androidify*, a 2011 app built with Google's Creative Lab.

[*CryptoPunks*](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks.md) launched on Ethereum in June 2017. Its 10,000 portraits, each 24 by 24 pixels, came out of a generator program and were free to claim at launch. A marketplace inside the contract handled sales between owners. The project came before ERC-721, the Ethereum standard for NFTs, and helped inspire it. [*Autoglyphs*](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/autoglyphs.md) followed in 2019: 512 works produced by a generator that runs inside the smart contract itself, which the studio calls "the first on-chain generative art on the Ethereum blockchain." [*Meebits*](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/meebits.md) arrived in May 2021 as 20,000 voxel characters, each with a 3D file for games and virtual worlds. Later came [*Protoglyph*](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/protoglyph-by-larva-labs.md), issued anonymously in PROOF's Grails drop in 2022, and [*Voxelglyph*](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/voxelglyph.md), a membership token for Fingerprints DAO built on Autoglyph #134. [*Quine*](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/quine-by-larva-labs.md), the last release in the Art Blocks Curated series, followed in October 2025.

In 2022 Larva Labs sold the CryptoPunks and Meebits IP to Yuga Labs. Yuga transferred the CryptoPunks IP to the nonprofit Infinite Node Foundation in May 2025, and Hall and Watkinson joined the foundation's advisory board. Museums holding their work include MoMA, the Whitney, the Centre Pompidou, LACMA, ICA Miami, the Toledo Museum of Art and ZKM Karlsruhe. Their work has also been shown at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Singapore's ArtScience Museum, the Centre Pompidou's Shanghai project with West Bund Museum and the foundation's Palo Alto space. CryptoPunks have also sold at Christie's and Sotheby's.

## At a glance

- Practice: Generative onchain art
- In museums: MoMA, Whitney, Centre Pompidou, LACMA, ZKM, Toledo, ICA Miami
- Founded: 2005
- Members: Matt Hall, John Watkinson
- Platforms: Art Blocks, PROOF

## Notable works

- 2017: [CryptoPunks](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks.md), Larva Labs
- 2019: [Autoglyphs](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/autoglyphs.md), Larva Labs
- 2021: [Meebits](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/meebits.md), Larva Labs
- 2025: [Quine](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/quine-by-larva-labs.md), Art Blocks Curated
- 2022: [Protoglyph](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/protoglyph-by-larva-labs.md), PROOF Grails

## In museum collections

- 2025: [8 CryptoPunks](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks/74.md), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY
- 2024: [Autoglyph #115](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/autoglyphs/115.md), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
- 2023: [Autoglyph #25 and CryptoPunk #110](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/autoglyphs/25.md), Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
- 2023: [CryptoPunk #3831](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks/3831.md), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA
- 2018: [CryptoPunks #2554 and #1286 (2018), Quine #93 (2025)](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks/2554.md), ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
- 2024: [CryptoPunk #9833](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks/9833.md), Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
- 2021-2022: [CryptoPunks #5293 and #305](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks/5293.md), Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami), Miami, FL

## Top sales

- 2022: [CryptoPunk #5822](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks/5822.md), CryptoPunks marketplace, 8,000 ETH ($23.7M)
- 2021: [9 CryptoPunks: 2, 532, 58, 30, 635, 602, 768, 603 and 757](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks/635.md), Christie's, New York, $16.96M
- 2024: [CryptoPunk #7804](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks/7804.md), CryptoPunks marketplace, 4,850 ETH ($16.4M)
- 2024: [CryptoPunk #3100](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks/3100.md), CryptoPunks marketplace, 4,500 ETH ($16M)
- 2024: [Set of 10 Autoglyphs](https://www.dlnews.com/articles/web3/ethereum-nft-trader-makes-13-million-on-autoglyphs), Fountain (private sale), 5,000 ETH ($14.5M)
- 2021: [CryptoPunk #7523](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/cryptopunks/7523.md), Sotheby's, $11.75M

## Exhibitions

- 2026-2027: [Computer Worlds](https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/oeuvre/WX3xkvI), Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museum, Shanghai, China
- 2026: [10,000](https://www.rightclicksave.com/article/node-digital-art-finds-a-home-in-silicon-valley), Infinite Node Foundation, Palo Alto, CA
- 2025-2026: [The Story That Has Just Begun. NFTs from the ZKM Collection](https://zkm.de/en/node/69197), ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
- 2025: [Infinite Images: The Art of Algorithms](https://infiniteimages.toledomuseum.org/artist/larva-labs), Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
- 2024-2025: [Art of Punk](https://ooekultur.at/exhibition-detail/art-of-punk), Francisco Carolinum, Linz, Austria
- 2024-2025: [Money Talks: Art, Society & Power](https://decrypt.co/243576/nfts-get-the-last-word-at-ashmoleans-money-talks-exhibition), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK
- 2024: [The Digital Art Mile](https://decrypt.co/234740/artmeta-launches-the-digital-art-mile-a-new-digital-art-fair-in-basel), ArtMeta, Basel, Switzerland
- 2024: [ArtVerse](https://www.artverse.fr/), Paris, France
- 2023: [Long Live London](https://decrypt.co/200428/were-rebels-nft-artists-invade-londons-saatchi-gallery), Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
- 2023: [Notes from the Ether: From NFTs to AI](https://bakchormeeboy.com/2023/08/18/museum-musings-notes-from-the-ether-from-nfts-to-ai-at-the-artscience-museum/), ArtScience Museum, Singapore
- 2023-2024: [Poétiques de l'immatériel: du certificat à la blockchain](https://decrypt.co/137094/quite-surprise-seeing-cryptopunks-nft-pompidou-larva-labs-co-founder), Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
- 2021: [Portrait of an Era | NFT Exhibition](https://thehouseoffineart.com/exhibitions/89/overview/), HOFA Gallery, London, UK
- 2021: [Pixelated III](https://www.saveartspace.org/pixelated), SaveArtSpace, London, UK
- 2021-2022: [Writing the History of the Future: The ZKM Collection](https://zkm.de/sites/default/files/file/en/pm_wiedereroffnung-writing-the-history-of-the-future_en_0.pdf), ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
- 2021: [Pixelated and Pixelated II](https://www.saveartspace.org/pixelated), SaveArtSpace, Miami, FL and New York, NY
- 2021: [Virtual Niche: Have you ever seen memes in the mirror?](https://forkast.news/crypto-art-beijing-nft/), UCCA Lab, Beijing, China
- 2018: [Perfect & Priceless: Value Systems in the Digital Age](https://www.katevassgalerie.com/larva-labs), Kate Vass Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland

## Collaborations

- 2025: [I ♥ LA, an Autoglyphs-based edition for Los Angeles wildfire relief](https://www.larvalabs.com/editioned-works), mmERCH
- 2022: [Voxelglyph, the Fingerprints DAO membership token based on Autoglyph #134](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/voxelglyph.md), Fingerprints DAO
- 2022: [Protoglyph, released anonymously in the first Grails drop](https://www.gondi.xyz/collections/protoglyph-by-larva-labs.md), PROOF
- 2011: [Androidify app](https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/14/i-just-androidified-myself-droids-never-looked-so-good/), Google Creative Lab

## Press & resources

- 2025: [Larva Labs on Computation's Strangeness](https://www.lerandom.art/editorial/larva-labs-on-computations-strangeness), Le Random
- 2025: [Larva Labs on Quine and Code as Art](https://www.rightclicksave.com/article/larva-labs-on-quine-and-code-as-art-interview-generative-art), Right Click Save
- 2025: [Larva Labs, in Infinite Images: The Art of Algorithms](https://infiniteimages.toledomuseum.org/artist/larva-labs), Toledo Museum of Art
- 2024: [Matt Hall and John Watkinson on Beginning Movements](https://www.lerandom.art/editorial/matt-hall-and-john-watkinson-on-beginning-a-movement), Le Random
- 2023: [Collecting the Algorithm: Autoglyphs](https://www.curated.xyz/editorial/collecting-autoglyphs), Curated
- 2023: [CryptoPunks NFT in Centre Pompidou 'Quite a Surprise': Larva Labs Co-Founder](https://decrypt.co/137094/quite-surprise-seeing-cryptopunks-nft-pompidou-larva-labs-co-founder), Decrypt
- 2022: [How three friends cracked Larva Labs's secret treasure hunt for a $25,000 Meebit](https://www.theblock.co/post/137757/how-three-friends-cracked-larva-labss-secret-treasure-hunt-for-a-25000-meebit), The Block
- 2021: [CryptoPunks Creators Just Launched Meebits, NFT Resales Already Top $3 Million](https://decrypt.co/69829/larva-labs-meebits), Decrypt

## Milestones

- 2005: [Larva Labs founded by Matt Hall and John Watkinson](https://www.larvalabs.com/about), Larva Labs
- 2017: [CryptoPunks released on Ethereum, free to claim, with a built-in marketplace](https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks), Larva Labs
- 2018: [Panel on digital art and blockchain at the Christie's Art + Tech Summit](https://www.lerandom.art/collection/autoglyphs-101), Christie's, London
- 2019: [All 512 Autoglyphs minted in four hours, with proceeds to 350.org](https://www.larvalabs.com/writing/2019-4-10-15-1/autoglyphs-post-launch-report), Larva Labs
- 2021: [CryptoPunks images and attributes stored fully onchain](https://www.larvalabs.com/writing/2021-8-18-18-0/on-chain-cryptopunks), Larva Labs
- 2021: [Signs with UTA for film, TV, licensing, publishing and games](https://tubefilter.com/2021/08/31/uta-signs-cryptopunks-meebits-autoglyphs-larva-labs/), UTA
- 2022: [CryptoPunks and Meebits IP sold to Yuga Labs](https://decrypt.co/94898/bored-ape-yacht-club-yuga-labs-acquires-cryptopunks-larva-labs), Yuga Labs
- 2024: [Phaidon publishes the monograph CryptoPunks: Free to Claim](https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks), Phaidon
- 2025: [CryptoPunks IP moves to the Infinite Node Foundation, and Hall and Watkinson join its advisory board](https://decrypt.co/319484/cryptopunks-nonprofit-acquires-ethereum-ip-yuga-labs), Infinite Node Foundation
- 2026: [Launches the Larva Labs Catalog of all its onchain works](https://www.larvalabs.com/writing/2026-10-2-18-0/introducing-the-larva-labs-catalog), Larva Labs

## Links

- [larvalabs.com](https://www.larvalabs.com/)
- [X](https://x.com/larvalabs)
- [larvalabs.com/about](https://www.larvalabs.com/about)
- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoPunks)

Data from GONDI (https://www.gondi.xyz), Nov 1, 2026.