Top Auction House Christie’s to Accept Ether Cryptocurrency for Digital Art Sale
The sale gives Christie’s a chance to “dip its toes” in crypto, said a New York representative.
Top Auction House Christie’s to Accept Ether Cryptocurrency for Digital Art Sale
British auction house Christie’s has confirmed it is accepting ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, as a form of payment for a coming digital art auction.
- Christie’s told Bloomberg it will accept ether as a form of payment for a work by digital artist Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann, according to a Thursday report.
- However, the premium – the fee an auction house charges on an artwork’s sale price – must be paid in U.S. dollars.
- The artwork being sold is a collage of thousands of pieces of art Beeple has posted online since 2007, as CoinDesk reported.
- Called “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS,” the piece will be delivered to the buyer along with a unique non-fungible token encrypted with Beeple’s signature.
- “We’re at this precipice where crypto is going to be such a more established and mainstream mode of conducting business,” Noah Davis, a Christie’s art specialist in New York, told Bloomberg.
- “With this [sale], I think it’s the perfect way to dip our toes in and give this a shot,” said Davis.
