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Beeple NFT becomes most expensive yet, running over $60 million in first ever auction sale

The artist Beeple's work, 'The First 5,000 Days' ran up over $60 million in bids in a Christie's auction, making it the most expensive NFT transaction yet.
TJ Denzer
TJ Denzer
2

NFTs are continuing to be an absurdly lucrative these last few weeks as deep pockets around the internet lay claim to various media with a blockchain attached to it. Even so, in what could be considered a Wild West of this ongoing trend, the stakes seem to be getting higher on various NFTs day by day. Such is the recent case with a Christie’s auction in which the work of the artist Beeple was featured as an NFT and garnered over $60 million in bids to become, by far, the most expensive NFT transaction to date.

The Christie’s auction in question took place fairly recently, as reported by CNBC, and allegedly featured one of the first occurrences of an NFT appearing at auction. The particular NFT was a digital artwork of artist Mike Winkelmann, known better as Beeple. Since his start in 2007, Winkelmann sought to do a single digital art piece each day. The NFT “The First 5,000 Days” was a collage of exactly that - 5,000 days of his efforts. The piece fetched a price of over $60 million in bids, still pending last bids and taxes for a final total which could run closer to $69 million.

Christie's has become one of the first official auction houses to host an NFT transaction, and at over $60 million, it is by far the most expensive NFT transaction yet.
Christie's has become one of the first official auction houses to host an NFT transaction, and at over $60 million, it is by far the most expensive NFT transaction yet.

If you somehow missed it, NFTs are non-fungible tokens. These unique pieces of property are unique items which cannot be broken down into smaller forms and whose ownership and authenticity is recorded via blockchain attached to the unit. Often, NFTs have come in the form of digital media. For instance, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey turned the first-ever tweet into an NFT, which is currently in active auction and running at around $2.5 million as of this writing. Musician and artist Grimes has also sold collections of her work, banking around $6 million in transactions through NFTs.

The Beeple NFT auction was one of the first to take place through an official auction house, and it’s easily the most expensive NFT transaction to date. That said, given that the popular craze has continued to expand through multiple digital media sectors such as sports, music, and art, it feels like this more-than-$60 million price tag may be indicative of just crazed the current trend is.

Senior News Editor
Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

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