A Cryptopunk NFT was recently sold for $11.8 million during
an auction organized by Sotheby’s. The sale, which also featured works
of other artists, was organized virtually. Sotheby’s anticipates strong
demand for this kind of digital good in the future, even as NFT fever
has somewhat subsided in recent weeks.
Cryptopunk NFT Sold for Almost $12 Million
Sotheby’s, a leading art and luxury auction house, announced yesterday the sale of a Cryptopunk NFT for almost $12 million. The auction, titled “Natively Digital,”
presented a group of curated works in the form of NFTs. While the
feature of the auction was the Cryptopunk NFT, it also featured 27 other
digital artworks.
The Cryptopunk NFTs are the very first series of NFTs minted on the
Ethereum network by Larva Labs back in 2017. While they were created and
distributed for free at that time, they are now highly valued for their
origin. There are 10,000 Cryptopunks in total, but the one auctioned
was especially strange.
Dubbed by some as the “Covid Alien” Cryptopunk, the NFT avatar
depicts a pale green-skinned character donning an orange beanie and a
mask. This made it especially desired compared to other Cryptopunks that
have more conventional traits. Shalom Meckenzie, a shareholder of
fantasy sports betting site Draftkings, won the auction for the asset.
According to Sotheby’s, this sale marks an auction record for a
single Cryptopunk. Other tokens in the sale also reached high prices at
the auction. Kevin McCoy’s Quantum sold for almost $1.5 million, and
Robert Alice’s iNFT sold for almost $500K.
NFT Bubble Popped
While the NFT craze surged just some months ago, it has subsided
recently. While the Sotheby’s auction shows there is still a real
interest in digital artwork, it seems this interest has migrated to real
artists and established collectibles. According to Protos,
the sales of NFT’s are down 90% since their biggest numbers posted last
May. This means the occasional NFT cash grab project is dying and could
mean that the ecosystem around NFT’s is maturing.
However important this NFT sale might seem, it pales in comparison to
the amount of money Beeple got for an NFT last March. The artist managed
to get $69 million for a work titled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days.”
The NFT shows his first 5000 artworks from his “Everydays“ project, where he vowed to produce some kind of artwork every day.
source link : https://news.bitcoin.com/cryptopunk-nft-sold-for-almost-12-million-in-sothebys-auction/
