Millions of Dollars for NFT: An Example of a Successful Sale
37 artworks were presented at the auction, available for purchase with cryptocurrency, including Dmitry Cherniak’s piece titled “Resonating №879,” also known as “The Goose.” It was sold to enthusiast @punk6529 for $6.2 million.
I believe that events like these effectively showcase the seriousness of the crypto industry because NFTs are no longer just images that can be downloaded from the internet or recordings of new singles by Jared Leto; they represent something much larger. Undoubtedly, we can consider NFTs as art, but I would like people to understand their significance. To give you an idea of the scale of “The Goose” sale, I would like to present a few other NFT collections:
Cat Division — collection of patriotic cats was created with the support of the cryptocurrency exchange WhiteBIT and INCRYPTED. The proceeds from the sales will go towards purchasing drones for the military in Ukraine.
Prices for one NFT — 0.065 ETH
YOU THE REAL MVP — collection was created by a team of specialists and consists of 420 golden trophies. Each trophy is inscribed with the phrase: “In i dór -oi Greatest Memes Lies I Greatest Mír” (translated: “In the Land of Greatest Memes lies the Greatest Treasure”).
Prices for one NFT — ranging from 50 ETH to 100 ETH.
DeGods — digital collection of artworks that brings together creators, developers, entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, experimenters, and innovators.
Prices for one NFT — ranging from 9ETH to 500 ETH.
The auction house declared it to be the second most valuable piece of generative art ever sold, following another artwork by Cherniak. The sale occurred a few weeks after Sotheby’s sold a smaller batch of NFTs belonging to Three Arrows for $2.5 million. Three Arrows had declared bankruptcy last year after the cryptocurrency exchange Deribit failed to pay them $80 million. Three Arrows gained prominence during the cryptocurrency bull market, reaching its peak in November 2021.
Some NFTs belonging to Three Arrows were privately sold in recent weeks, resulting in a total amount of nearly $17 million raised by Sotheby’s for the collection, including fees. The auction on Thursday attracted almost 1,000 bids from 17 countries. Interestingly, the majority of auction participants were individuals under the age of 40. The enthusiasm of collectors contrasts with the sharp decline in demand for NFTs in the broader market, with the peak occurring in January 2022 when monthly sales volume exceeded $16 billion, according to Chainalysis data. By comparison, last month’s total sales volume amounted to just $867 million.
“The market has changed dramatically in terms of prices [over the past year and a half],” said Michael Bouhanna, Head of Digital Art and NFTs at Sotheby’s.
However, he added that so-called generative art, which utilizes algorithms, “carries some real legacy” of computer art from the 1960s, and its significance has been recognized by insightful modern collectors.
“We see really different categories in the NFT space — NFT doesn’t describe [all of this] very well,” said Bouhanna. The buyer of “The Goose,” @punk6529, who won a three-way bidding war, said, “Generative art on the blockchain is an act of faith by the artist and the minters. Once the algorithm is tied to the blockchain, nobody knows what outputs it will produce. ‘The Goose’ embodies that more clearly than any generative NFT… I suspect its journey has only just begun.”
Conclusion
The sale of Three Arrows Capital’s NFTs at Sotheby’s auction, where Dmitry Chernyak’s artwork titled “The Goose” was sold for $6.2 million, is a significant indicator of the seriousness and importance of the crypto industry. Despite the overall decline in demand for NFTs and digital assets, this sale allows us to see that NFTs are no longer just pictures or recordings but something greater. The NFT market continues to evolve and attract interest not only from collectors but also from various investors. Such sales demonstrate the evolution and development of the crypto industry, where blockchain technologies and digital assets play an increasingly significant role in the global economy and culture.
