Sotheby’s digital art department announced it would auction off pieces from BitcoinShrooms, a Bitcoin Ordinals project designed by artist Shroomtoshi.
The BitcoinShrooms collection was originally released on-chain on October 22. Both the BitcoinShroom website and X account claim this is the “first ever Ordinals collection.”
“Within the BitcoinShrooms collection lies a wealth of references – from iconic Bitcoin memes to cutting-edge technical concepts – a visual symphony that captures the essence of Bitcoin from the perspective of someone there since its early days,” Sotheby’s wrote.
The auction runs from December 6 to 13 and there are currently three pieces available for bidding.
The collection includes two mushroom individuals and a pixelated avocado seed called BIP39 – the common standard for creating a mnemonic code needed for seed sentences. All three are expected to fetch around $20,000 to $30,000, although the auction house is also accepting bids in crypto.
“The BitcoinShrooms collection is a grainy summary of the first 13 years of Bitcoin, a tribute to the 8-bit style of art that expresses a slight nostalgia for the 90s, a way to pollute tens of thousands of SSDs spread around the world with my art (->next level cyber vandalism), a tool to raise awareness about Bitcoin and what I personally consider its core principles, an ironic way to vent against what I see as its annoying pop elements and aberrations,” said Shroomtoshi on the Ordinals.
“It is a thank you to those I worked with and learned from, to those who are no longer here, but whose names should not be forgotten. it is condensed knowledge and a journey for the curious.”
The collection includes more than 200 pieces, which are intended to pay tribute to the history of Bitcoin. These include images of a private key, a pixelated character wearing a “mountain hat” as a nod to the Mt. Gox incident, an enigmatic figure with a question mark to represent anonymity, and an illustration of a ‘fiery’ hot wallet, among others.
The collection also apparently includes images of iconic characters and logos from well-known franchises like Batman, Iron Man, Wall-e and Super Mario.
The BitcoinShroom account on It is unclear who Shroomtoshi is as the artist has not made their identity public.
In a post on He shared an AI-generated image of an auction room with mushrooms and bitcoin on a screen.
Tomorrow 🫶🏽pic.twitter.com/O1Z6ED4i1g
— Michael Bouhanna (@michaelbouhanna) December 5, 2023
After the announcement, he posted a message proclaiming that the art auction would be the first time Sotheby’s has sold Ordinals.
Ordinals on the Bitcoin blockchain are conceptually similar to NFTs. They use the Ordinals protocol to write data on individual satoshis, Bitcoin’s smallest denomination, creating unique digital assets that can include art, collectibles, or other forms of content.
In late November, JPMorgan analysts noted that Ordinal’s arrival had sparked “renewed interest” in the NFT space.
Since then, exchanges such as Binance and OKX have opened their doors to trading Ordinals.