Sotheby’s has announced the launch of a new on-chain marketplace for digital art enthusiasts to purchase secondary NFTs.
Many traditional auction houses, including Southeby's and Christie's, are now investing heavily in the NFT market.
On May 1, Sotheby’s announced the launch of a new on-chain marketplace for digital art enthusiasts to purchase secondary NFTs.
According to the tweet, all sales on Sotheby’s Metaverse platform will be conducted using smart contracts. This will allow digital art collectors to pay for their art and collectibles in Ethereum [ETH] or Polygon [MATIC].
Sotheby’s said it will pay royalties to artists through smart contracts on its secondary sales platform, automatically paying them the royalty amount they choose.
The auction house first dipped its toe into the NFT space in April 2021, when it auctioned off a work by anonymous digital artist Pak. In June 2021, Sotheby’s sold a rare crypto-punk called “Covid Alien” for a whopping $11.8 million.
Sotheby’s held the largest NFT charity auction in history in November 2021, auctioning 140 rare NFTs to raise funds for the nonprofit healthcare organization Sostento.
The company came under fire in April 2023 when it presented the latest edition of its Natively Digital series, a showcase that honored glitch artists in the NFT space. However, it featured no female artists. After public outcry, Sotheby’s suspended the show and then relaunched it with a more diverse lineup.
Traditional auction houses investing in NFTs
Many traditional auction houses are now investing heavily in the NFT market. In February 2021, the auction house sold Beeple's "EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS" for $69.3 million. In September 2022, Christie's launched an on-chain platform for NFT art. This makes it the first global auction to allow fully on-chain sales.
Another well-known auction house, Christie's, will launch the blockchain platform Christie's 3.0 in early 2022. Last year, Christie's sold 87 NFT lots across all platforms for a total of $5.9 million.