Seller Cancels $30 Million NFT Auction, Only Provides Meme As Explanation
Sotheby’s latest million-dollar NFT auction didn’t go as planned, after the consignor withdrew the collection after the beginning of the auction had already been delayed.
According to the New York Times, the sale was already 25-minutes past its expected start time when it was revealed that the auction had been called off. Multiple attendees told the publication they were left shocked by the announcement, as it remains unclear why the seller pulled out.
One attendee, Kent Charugundla, called the withdraw a “bad” look for the NFT community. “People were extremely upset,” he said of the crowd’s reaction.
The digital artwork in question was a collection of 104 CryptoPunk NFTs, which Sotheby was expecting to sell for as high as $30 million at the auction.
Sotheby’s later release a statement via its spokesperson Derek Parsons, who said the NFT collection was withdrawn “following discussions with the consignor.”
Also speaking to the New York Times, Todd Levin (an art adviser who’s worked for Sotheby’s in the past) explained that consignors usually withdraw their auction items due to legal concerns or if they don’t think the reserve price will be achieved.
The consigner’s identity remains anonymous to the public, but they go by 0x650d on Twitter, where they posted what appeared to be a reference to the auction shortly after it was called off.
“Nvm, decided to hodl,” the digital art collector wrote in a typo-filled tweet, which they shared with their 12,000 followers. They followed up the tweet by sharing a meme that appeared to make fun of Sotheby’s by implying they were “taking punks mainstream by rugging Sothebys.”
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were almost unheard of only years ago, but they’ve recently skyrocketed in popularity, with a variety being sold for tens of millions of dollars. As forms of digital artwork, it’s expected that the value of rare or exclusive NFTs will rise significantly in the years to come, making them what appears to be a smart investment to collectors.
Experts do predict that the NFT industry will continue to grow exponentially. Investment bank Jeffries recently revealed that the industry will likely be valued at over $35 billion by the end of this year before almost tripling to $80 billion by 2025.
The monetary value of NFTs is being recognized across various industries, with the values of these tokens being worked into people’s net worths. There have even been reports of people getting loans by using NFTs as collateral.
Earlier this month, for instance, we covered the news of Chris Ciobanica – who’s better known by his digital art collector name, Silver Surfer – who was offered a $1.2 million loan by Genesis, a firm specializing in lending cryptocurrencies. Ciobanica used $5 million of NFTs from his personal collection as collateral in order to quality for the million-dollar loan.
Sources: New York Times, Coin Desk, The News Crypto,
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