NFT artists get the first big test since the collapse of Crypto

Christie’s $ 1.6 million sale of “Cartography of the Mind” exceeded the house’s expectations of $ 1.5 million, but none of its 27 offers were sold for over $ 250,000.

Sales come amid falling cryptocurrency markets, many of which, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, have recently fallen to less than half of their highs.

Christie’s has sold who’s who from NFT artists including Beeple, Refik Anadol and Mad Dog Jones. They became a global reputation amid last year’s digital art bonanza, thanks to flush cryptocurrency investors and the emergence of digital receipts known as irreplaceable tokens or NFT.

Still, several of these digital artists have passed a major market test since crypto markets nearly collapsed this spring. The lack of market intelligence means that collectors are now struggling to predict the trajectory of blue-chip NFT art that is different from collector’s tokens. This partly explains why collectors focused on this small Christie’s sale curated by one of their own investors in alternative assets, Ryan Zurer.

Lower sales estimates on Tuesday could be a sign that the art market is re-calibrating levels for its digital artists, dealers said. It could also indicate the level at which artists were willing to donate works to charity, in this case the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

On Tuesday, it took 10 offers for the online collector to win Biplo’s “Pilgrimage” of 252,000 dollars. The digital landscape, which depicts a tiny man walking among tall mushrooms, has surpassed its high estimate of $ 250,000. That pales in comparison to the kind of feverish attention paid to the artist’s climax last year, the $ 69.3 million “Everyday: The First 5,000 Days” that helped kick off the NFT art boom. (His estimate at the time: $ 100.)

Christie’s said that he is still ready to accept cryptocurrencies for some of his offers, but the house has sold only 4.6 million dollars in NFT art so far this year, including sales on Tuesday. Last year, it sold NFTs worth nearly $ 150 million.

Nicole Sales, Christie’s business director of digital art sales, said collectors set the best digital artists apart from the rest, consolidating around a canon that is likely to survive the turmoil of wider cryptocurrency markets. “Now it’s about art, not speculators,” she said.

Sam Sprat, a New York digital artist known for designing albums for rapper Kid Kudi, began selling with his painting portrait of his early human ancestor Lucy lying on a bumpy tree, “VII. Vormfood. ” The work attracted 15 bids and sold for $ 252,000, more than a $ 120,000 high estimate.

Another artist named Elfjtrul from Forgotten Runes drew 23 offers - the highest for sale - for a pixelated eyeball surrounded by dragons and angel-like wings, “Quantum Uroboros”. It sold for $ 138,600, more than a high estimate of $ 35,000.

Sarah Mayohas, a pioneering NFT artist who gained fame in 2015 by creating her own cryptocurrency, BitchCoin, saw that her work, “Liquid Speculation # 26”, pulled 14 bids and sold it for $ 9,450, compared to a low estimate of $ 8,000.

In second place on sale, Mad Dog Jones’ “Sally Simon’s Psilocybin” sold for $ 75,600. Last year, the same artist sold a larger NFT art project in Phillips, “Replicator”, for $ 4.1 million.

“Baby Eyes” by artist and director of the animated film Jake Frieda, worth 63,000 dollars, was sold after one offer, as well as works by Mr. Anadol, Tom Sachs, Brendan Daves and Justin Aversan.

Ms Sales said the current market atmosphere was “less than ideal” for pricing works by NFT artists, but hoped for long-term prospects. At last week’s NFT.NIC convention, she said that the queue for entry stretched more than the city block, adding: “It was crowded.”