Singapore-based NFT Fund Metapurse Purchases Beeple’s Digital Art NFT for A Massive $69 Million
On Thursday, March 11, popular digital artists Mike Winklemann sold his digital masterpiece “Everdays: The First 5000 Days” in the form of NFT for a massive $69 million. The sale took place online hosted by the 25-year-old auction house Christie’s over the MakersPlace marketplace.
This is one of the biggest NFT sales and the third-largest painting sale in history. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are basically cryptographic tokens working on blockchain. However, unlike other public cryptocurrencies, NFTs differ in a way that no-two NFTs are same and thus they are not mutually interchangeable. As a result, NFTs have found unique applications in areas where a scarce asset like digital artwork or a video footage is sold.
Beeple’s masterpiece is one such collection of 5000 digital art pieces that the artists has made over the last 13 years of his career. The entire artwork was connected to a non-fungible token (NFT).
Noah Davis, a specialist at Christie’s who organized the sale told Bloomberg: “The first day of bidding was one of the most magical events in my auction career. I’ve never seen anything like it”. In the first eight minutes of bidding, Davis says, about 20 bidders pushed the work to US$1 million. “Only three [of the bidders] were known to us previously.”
When the bidding started on February 25, it started for just a mere $100. However, thing escalated exponentially during the last one hour of the bid. As it turns out Singapore-based NFT fund Metapurpose, founded by a pseudonymous identity called Metakoven.
A spokesperson for Metakoven who goes by the name Twobadour confirmed the purchase to Wall Street Journal. Metakoven said that he believes that he has purchased the most valuable artwork of his generation. He notes that his NFT could be worth $1 billion in the future.
Metakoven stated: “When you think of high-valued NFTs, this one is going to be pretty hard to beat. And here's why - it represents 13 years of everyday work. Techniques are replicable and skill is surpassable, but the only thing you can't hack digitally is time. This is the crown jewel, the most valuable piece of art for this generation. It is worth $1 billion.”
Twobadour further added that Metakoven is planning to have its own virtual museum wherein it will put Beepel’s digital masterpiece for display online. Using any ordinary browser, people worldwide can digitally visit the museum. Besides, Metakoven will also bring “really immersive experience” for viewing it on Virtual Reality (VR) headsets.
The spokesperson adds: “The beauty of this piece is that it can be experienced wherever you are in the world. Unlike the Mona Lisa that’s in physical space, this is purely digital. So we intend to create a monument that this particular piece deserves, which can exist only in the metaverse.”