Buy a stone for your loved one this Valentine’s Day. That could be the marketing angle that legendary auction house Sotheby’s hopes to play before tomorrow, February 14, when it will begin a sealed auction of EtherRock NFTs.
According to the auction page, the EtherRock collection is a “critical” part of NFT history. There’s certainly something to be said for that: Launched in 2017 shortly after CryptoPunks, but before the ERC-1155 and ERC-721 token standards (which underpin most Ethereum-based NFTs today), EtherRocks has remained part of the digital art conversation ever since. they became popular during the last bull market.
This may be a bit surprising, considering exactly what EtherRocks are: a clipart of a rock. There are only 100 tokens in the series, each linked to a near-identical cartoon JPEG image – the only differences are in color and hue from gray to brown (and a few extremely rare ones in blue). The series is dividing NFT collectors, some of whom love the absurdity of “Pet Rocks on the blockchain,” as the project’s founders call them, and others who see the concept as a mockery.
To me, EtherRocks represent one of the truest expressions of NFT art, or at least what NFTs have become. When it launched, the founders didn’t pretend that EtherRocks was anything more than an early experiment with a new type of blockchain feature. The fact that they were useless was actually the point: “These virtual rocks serve NO PURPOSE other than to be able to bring [sic] and sold, giving you a strong sense of pride in owning 1 of the only 100 collectible bricks :),” according to the EtherRock website.
But today the conversation around EtherRocks takes on a different tone. Many in the NFT community were extremely annoyed that Sotheby’s decided to spotlight the series, under the company’s new digital art-focused vertical, Sotheby’s Metaverse. Part of the debate is about how historic the historical series is. Apparently few people noticed or cared about EtherRocks at launch, unlike CryptoPunks or CryptoKitties who immediately found an audience.
“My thoughts on Sotheby’s EtherRock auction: 1. EtherRocks are old and scarce. Strong story. 2. Let people buy and sell what they want if they like the meme. But: 3. Don’t push false narratives like “EtherRocks-shaped NFTs.” EtherRocks is a 2021 meme that happened to be released in 2017,” ChainLeftist, a pseudonymous crypto artist and historian, said on social media. It was a point echoed by artist Rob Ness: “I WAS THERE DURING THAT TIME…NOBODY KNEW OR CARE ABOUT THEM ROCKS YO”
After initially saying that EtherRocks “played a crucial role in shaping the NFT movement,” Sotheby’s actually changed the language on its site in response to the criticism. While CryptoPunks created the shape and format for all 10,000 cartoon series that would follow (from Bored Ape Yacht Club to Pudgy Penguins), it’s hard to say that others have tried to emulate EtherRocks’ model.
From an outsider’s perspective, it seems like much of this controversy is simply self-loathing, aimed at a project that illustrates the worst qualities of NFTs. EtherRocks are, for better or worse, the platonic ideal of contemporary NFTs. Stripped of all the hype surrounding community building and the future of art, they are what they are: a cartoon image downloaded from the online clip art database goodfreephotos.com, sold to the highest bidder.
In 2021, at the height of the NFT craze, someone spent the equivalent of $1.3 million worth of ether (ETH) for the red-brown EtherRock #42. At the time, the “price floor” for the series was above $1 million, according to @etherrockprice on Twitter/X, which stopped tracking sales data in 2022 after its business failed. And now that attention is focused on the series again due to the auction, prices seem to be rising again.
On February 12, EtherRock #46 sold for $496,658, although there is some suspicion that it was not a legitimate sale, as the average pre-sale price was around $500. It’s not uncommon for insiders to collaborate on NFT sales to draw attention to a project. For example, the record sale of digital artist Beeple’s “100 Days” mosaic, which put NFTs on the map, was to a business partner. Last year, a group of art investors sued Sotheby’s for allegedly colluding with Yuga Labs to drive up the price of Bored Ape NFTs.
I’m not claiming the same game is being played here, but if it were, it would all be too fitting.
To be fair, it’s not just raw greed that’s driving interest and investment in EtherRocks. Like the Pet Rocks it draws inspiration from, there’s something refreshingly self-aware about the project. Gary Dahl, the advertising professional who came up with the idea of selling rocks to Americans, used to joke that pet rocks “required little to no care.” The new toy came with a booklet that taught buyers how to make your rock sit, stay and, with a little help, roll over.
With EtherRocks you can’t do much more than speculate. And in that sense, the imprimatur of Sotheby’s statement “these stones are important” is a huge boon for collectors. A famous art collector and author told CoinDesk in an email that the series is “legendary.” Why exactly did the curators choose this project? Because of its vintage? His artistic statement on capitalism? Because they have a sense of humor?