Christie’s auction house made history Thursday (March 11), selling a digital-only piece of artwork for close to $70 million.
As Reuters noted, it was the first-ever sale by a major auctioneer for a piece of artwork that does not exist in any physical form.
Instead, the artwork — a digital collage called “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by an artist known as “Beeple” — exists as a non-fungible token, or NFT.
NFTs are digital files serving as digital signatures that exist on blockchain telling who owns certain photos, videos and other online media.
“Without NFTs there was legitimately no way to collect digital art,” said Beeple, born Mike Winkelmann, who has designed concert visuals for performers like Katy Perry and Justin Beiber. “I do really think that this is going to be seen as the next chapter of art history.”
Speaking to Reuters, Beeple said the rise of NFTs has a lot to do with the increase in the amount of time people are spending online thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also thinks NFTs could be the future of ownership.
“Equities have been the predominant asset class for the last hundred years, or whatever. I don’t think it’s guaranteed that that’s always going to stay like that. I think kids today hate corporations … So the idea that they’re just going to automatically blindly give them their money to invest, I don’t know about that.”
The Christie’s sale came less than a week after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced he was auctioning off the site’s first ever tweet (“just setting up my twittr”) as an NFT. As of Thursday afternoon, the highest bid was $2.5 million from Bridge Oracle CEO Sina Estavi.
The auction ends March 21. Dorsey reportedly will donate the proceeds to COVID relief in Kenya, Rwanda, Liberia and Malawi.
As PYMNTS writes, NFTs might end up being a fad, but for now, the trend is there. It has its defenders because NFT uses blockchain to authenticate transactions, adding a scarcity that can help legitimize NFTs.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More