According to auction house Sotheby’s, a non-fungible token (NFT) of a digital artwork known as a “CryptoPunk” sold for $11.8 million on Thursday. Larva Labs created a set of 10,000 pixel-art characters called CryptoPunks in 2017. “CryptoPunk #7523,” the one sold by Sotheby’s, is of the sought-after Alien form, with blue-green skin and a surgical mask.
The work is in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT). It means it is verified via blockchain to ensure its originality and ownership. Hence, no tangible artwork is exchanged; the NFT is transmitted to the buyer’s bitcoin wallet.
“CryptoPunk #7523” was sold for $11,754,000 as part of Sotheby’s online auction “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”. It obtained a total of $17.1 million across efforts by 27 digital artists.
According to Sotheby’s, an Israeli entrepreneur Shalom Meckenzie, the largest stakeholder of digital sports firm DraftKings purchased it.
Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Specialist Michael Bouhanna said the auction showed sustained high demand for NFTs. “We are excited to continue to explore new and interesting ways in presenting these cutting-edge works.”
Anyone can look at the artworks represented by the NFTs. But only the buyer has the official status of the owner.
Sotheby’s debuted its virtual gallery
The sale was an online auction. Still, the pieces were on display on screens in Sotheby’s exhibits in New York, London, and Hong Kong. In the online virtual environment Decentraland, Sotheby’s also debuted its virtual gallery: a copy of its real-world headquarters on New Bond Street in London.
Users can wander around with friends, visit buildings, attend events, and also show their NFT artwork collections in Decentraland, a blockchain-based virtual environment.
“To those who say, “yeah but you can’t hang ’em on your wall”, this is where virtual social worlds like Decentraland come in,” said Dave Carr, a spokesman for the Decentraland Foundation.