TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) Summary:
It's all about thepunksbenjamins¹. Printing / mintingmoneypunk (tokens) was never easier (and remember it's all about the art and yes, the art is free (as in free of any (financial fraud protection) regulations or "old school" art critics declaring what is (trash) art and what not).
Note ¹: Benjamins is a slang word for money, referring to Benjamin Franklin's image on the US $100 bill.
2017
CryptoPunks V1 - original "first deploy" V1 contract (of right-looking punks) and mint on June 9th, 2017. SOLD OUT!
CryptoPunks V2 - airdropped to CryptoPunks V1 minters / hodlers to move to new V2 contract on June 23rd, 2017.
2021
CryptoPhunks V1 - original "first deploy" V1 contract with a "bounding curve" mint price and left-looking punks - "hand-phlipped one-by-one" by Philip the Intern - on June 14th, 2021. FAIL!
CryptoPhunks V2 - airdropped to CryptoPhunks V1 minters / hodlers to move to new V2 contract with a new reduced mint price scheme on June 21, 2021. SOLD OUT!
2022
CryptoPunks V3 - new "legacy-free (or is that Lavra Lab Bros-free?)" CryptoPunks contract and mint started on February 2, 2022. SOLD OUT!
CryptoPunks V4 - another new "legacy-free (or is that Lavra Lab Bros-free?)" CryptoPunks contract and mint started on February 4, 2022.
Wen V5, ser?
June 9th, 2017 - Genesis
June, 9th 2017 - Minting of CryptoPunks V1 tokens.
June 17th to 23rd, 2017 - Discovery of a bug in the Contract & Airdrop and Move to CryptoPunks V2
A critical bug gets reported as token hodlers report that punks offered for sale get purchased "for free" with no money changing accounts but the punks gone (forever).
The Larva Lab Bros decide to fix the bug in the V1 contract code by uploading a new V2 contract that includes as a bonus a new bid for punks function / market.
June, 23rd 2017 - Larva Lab Bros airdropped new CryptoPunks V2 tokens to (rightful¹) V1 token hodlers.
Note: Trading of V1s continues (safe) over the counter (OTC), that is, "off-chain".
Note ¹: The Crypto hacker with the pseudonym Hemba stole tons of V1 tokens (using the buy and get your money back bug). The Larva Lab Bros honored the token hodlers BEFORE the heist.
August 2017 to December 2020
Punk trading in low volume and low prices. Punk "winter" is upon us.
Source: cryptoslam.io/cryptopunks/sales/summary
Hint: The magic of the zero-fee market that enables wash trading and self-dealing (sell yourself or to your parter in crime some punks in ever higher prices) to pump up the market and turn low-effort trash 24x24 pixel art into blue chips of the future of digital luxory jewelery / profile pics still dormant / undiscovered.
December 2020 to December 2021 - CryptoPunks V2 "Bubble/ Bull" Market
December, 2020 - Punk #1 purchased (wash trade / self-dealing?) for U$$ 36 000!
January, 2021 - Punk #8219 purchased (wash trade / self-dealing ?) for ETH 140!
Punk #2890 purchased for ETH 605 by FlamingoDAO.
March, 2021 - foobardev.eth (0xfoobar) codes a contract that wraps the original V1s into an ethereum standard [non-fungible] tokens-compatible contract making buy/sell transactions safe again (if wrapped) and opens the door to trading on crypto markets (OpenSea & friends)
Punk #7804 purchased (wash trade / self-dealing?) for ETH 4200
May, 2021 - Christie's $16.9 million record auction of 9 "founder" punks from the Larva Lab Bros (Christies rakes in 5% commision on sale. Congrats! Big pay day no. 1 for the Larva Labs Bros!).
May, 2021 - Larva Labs Bros sell-off in overpriced dutch-auction 20 000 Meebits - 3D (voxel) character models - and collect US$80+ million in a day. Big pay day no. 2.
June, 2021 - Punk #7532 purchased (wash trade / self-dealing ?) for US$ 11.8 million
OpenSea market delists CryptoPhunks (on request by DMCA takedown send-in by the Larva Labs Bros).
October, 2021 - Crypto Bro Richerd Chen (@Richerd) of manifold.xyz rejects a 2500 ETH (~US$ 9.5million) offer on punk #6046 by Crypto Bro Patricio Worthalter (@Worthalter) of poap.xyz. See Build (Crypto) Pixel Punk #6046 With Record-Setting "Declined" Fraudster $9.5 Bid To Self To Fool the World Using Punk, The Shell Edition V2.
Punk #9998 purchased (yes, in confirmed wash trade / self-dealing) for historic (yes, highest-ever art sale) US$ 500+ million. See Inside [Ethereum] contract programming - How did the flash loan $500+ million CryptoPunk wash trade / sale work?.
January 2022 - Revival of CryptoPunks V1
Between March 2021 and January 2022 original hodlers of the CryptoPunks V1 tokens stared wrapping the tokens using the wrapper by 0xfoobar (Punks appeared with a red ribbion on the top left).
Franknft.eth codes a new wrapper (or really copies the wrapper from 0xfoobar) and changes the new punk v1 background to lavender (purple) with no ribbon AND codes and stars a new zero-fee punk market.
Franknft.eth wrapped CryptoPunks V1 start trading on OpenSea .
February 2022 - Lavra Labs Bros Self-Destruct Saga
Lavra Labs Bros sell 39 of the V1s (wrapped first - of course) held since 2017 pulling in about ~$US400 000 and THAN denounce CryptoPunks V1 in a "public service announcment" as fraud and worthless.
Lavra Labs Bros force OpenSea to remove CryptoPunks V1 from trading via another DMCA takedown.
Punks V1 leads hire legal counsel to file a counter notice.
The obvious "elephant" question in the room -
Can you copyright trivial (computer generated) 24x24 pixel matrix in 8-bit colors?
Spoiler: It's unclear (Really? How about the Emperor Has No Clothes and No, of course not.)
Brian L. Frye, University of Kentucky - College of Law Writes (Academic) Paper / Essay - Are CryptoPunks Copyrightable? It's unclear. (21 Pages)
Note: Trading of V1 continues on zero-fee v1punks.io market and on LooksRare, Rarible & friends.
Sotheby's Again¹! - Our next Sotheby's Metaverse Sale 'Punk It! 104 CryptoPunks. 1 Lot.' Will Be A Landmark LIVE Evening Auction on February 23rd, 2022. Truly Historic [Con-Art Fraud]
Note ¹: Remember Sotheby's gets a 5% commission. Do the math on a US$20-30 million sale.