NFTS and Crypto Art - the next evolutionary level of the art market?

Until his turn to crypto art, the digital artist Mike Winkelmann -better known as his pseudonym Beeple -had only brought in just about $ 100.

Since 2007 he has posted a digital picture on the online platform Beeple on Tumblr . At the beginning of the year, he put together tiny images of it into a collage and created a JPEG file with 21 069 times 21 069 pixels. He titled the collage with "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" .

The file then sold at an auction. The price breaks every frame.

In March of this year, such an NFT at Christie’s for an incredible $ 69 million. This sale positioned him overnight according to the auction house "among the three most valuable living artists" .

The record-breaking NFT sale comes after months of increasingly valuable auctions. In October 2020, Winkelmann already sold his first series from NFTS, with a few $ 66,6666. In December he sold a number of works for a total of 3.5 million US dollars.

And in March 2021 one of the NFTs, which were originally sold for $ 66,666.66, was finally resold for $ 6.6 million already mentioned.

Many participants in the art market see no less than the beginning of a new era. The revolution of the art market with tempting, new revenue potential for artists of every strip.

"I consider this as the next chapter in art history ," said Winkelmann. "Now there is a way to collect digital art."

NFTS or NON Fungable tokens are unique files that are on a blockchain and are able to verify ownership of a digital work of art. Buyers usually receive (restricted) rights to a digital or digitized original work in order to show the digital work of art they represented. The technology has exploded in the past few months - and Winkelmann has been at the top of her rapid ascent like no other.

He showed us this collage, and that was my Heureka moment when I knew that this would be extremely important, "said Noah Davis, specialist for post-war and contemporary art at Christie's." It was just so monumental and so significant for what NFTs could do. "

Nevertheless, many are likely to ask themselves:

How did such a price come about?

A number of factors could explain why Beepe's work has become so valuable.

On the one hand, he has built up a large fan base with around 2.5 million followers in the social channels. And as is well known, it is enormously productive: as part of a project called "Everydays", Winkelmann created and released a new digital work of art every day. The project is now in the 14th year.

At the same time, NFTs have exploded over the past few months and - at least at the moment - are viewed by many as the ultimate new way in which digital art will be acquired and traded in the future. For art collectors who are firmly convinced of this, the rising prices do not represent anything in comparison to what NFTS will be worth in the future if the rest of the world will finally have recognized their value and meaning.

Christie’s is also a legitimate force for Winkelmann's art and NFTS as technology. The 255 -year -old auction house sold some of the most famous paintings in history, from the only known portrait of Shakespeares, which was created during his lifetime, to the last discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci .

What is a NFT?

We have not yet clarified this question in the event that they have not yet been deeper into the matter. We have already provided an explanation article on cryptocunation Nevertheless, we would like to give a short introduction again.

With NFTS you can buy and sell ownership of unique digital/virtual objects and use the blockchain to follow who they belong. NFT stands for "non-fungable tokens" and technically can contain everything digital, including drawings, animated gifs, songs or elements in video games. A NFT can either be unique, like a real painting, or a copy of many, such as collective cards, but the blockchain follows who the owner of the file is and verifies the owners unequivocally and visible to everyone.

NFTs have made countless headlines since the beginning of the year. Some crypto art works of art of this kind were sold for millions of dollars, for example with popular memes such as Nyan Cat and the "Deal with IT" sunglasses that were auctioned.

There is also a lot of discussion on the negative side about the massive electricity consumption and the environmental impact of NFTS. Winkelmann said he planned to buy for all of his NFTS CO2 compensation in the future so that their effects are positive.

Against the rise of NFTs there was already a headwind away from the ecological debates. Many works of questionable artistic value are sold on hype-driven auctions. Works by artists are said to have been stolen and auctioned as authentic.

Those who set off their claims early on in the new world of crypto art are convinced that the technology has come to stay. Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile , the collector who bought a beep for $ 66,666 and resold it 100 times only four months later, started collecting digital art a year ago and was co-founder of the Museum of Crypto Art show his growing collection He sees the increasing sales prices from Winkelmann as proof that the technology matters: "I really thought it was the right catalyst."

The reason for this sale was in no way the money.  I really thought it was the right catalyst to signal the confirmation of what is happening in the industry. ”

said Rodriguez-Fraile.

At Christie’s, meanwhile, you are planning to work with more digital artists to auction NFTs. In view of a growing number of smaller marketplaces and a countless number of NFTs that are created daily, he sees Christie's role in promoting the space in an extremely well -thought -out way.

We have more responsibility than ever in some collective category as the referee of the articles we sell ",

said Davis.

Rodriguez-Fraile believes that the next wave of artists and collectors will see the NFTs as a simple way how art can be bought and sold.

I am confident that it is not a hype , "he said. " It is the catalyst for a generation. "

In addition to Christie's and the many smaller NFT platforms, Openea established itself as a digital point of contact for discovering, collecting, buying and selling exceptional crypto art on the net.

OpenSea-digital port for all NFT disciples?

This platform is the world's first & largest NFT marketplace on the Internet and sees itself as a builder of an open digital economy for art.

A core of the vision of OpenSea is to enable dynamic new economies Ethereum They develop tools that enable consumers to act freely, creates their assets, to publish new digital works, and develop developers, comprehensive, integrated marketplaces for their digital assets.

The path to the top led through uncertain waters

In 2017, the world experienced the birth of cryptokitties . For the first time, the internet community experienced a decentralized application based on blockchains but was geared towards a mainstream audience.

While cryptokitties felt like a toy for many, it meant a dramatic change in the way we interact with objects in the digital world. While earlier digital elements lived on company servers, blockchain native elements were based on public blockchains used together that did not belong to any individual party. They could be viewed everywhere, exchanged open and really obsessed, as it was never possible in the digital world before.

Fascinated by the moving movement, Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah the early adopter communities on Discord and began to speak to the users. With the Beta start of OpenSea in December 2017, the first open marketplace for all non-fungible assets was born on the Ethereum blockchain.

Openea is the largest general marketplace for user digital articles that supports several blockchains, with the widest categories and the best prices for new aspiring asset classes.

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and managing director of Kunstplaza . Publicist, editor and passionate blogger in the field of art, design and creativity since 2011. Successful conclusion in web design as part of a university degree (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expression painting and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through many years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.

www. kunstplaza .de/