Sotheby’s, the 279-year-old British auction house, is expected to close the sale of an EtherRock (EthRock) non-fungible token (NFT) in a sealed bid auction on Wednesday.
Decentralized prediction market website Polymarket indicates that there is a 57% chance that the EtherRock NFT will sell for more than $600,000 at the Sotheby’s auction. On February 12, EtherRock number 46 sold for $496,658.
For those unfamiliar with the term “sealed bid auction,” this is a type of auction where bids are not viewed until the actual auction date, which in this case is Wednesday. The bids are physically sealed in an envelope and opened all at once.
EtherRock NFTs are digital collectibles that represent ownership of virtual bricks on the Ethereum blockchain. Each EtherRock is a unique token, whose ownership is recorded on the blockchain, giving buyers the ability to buy, sell and trade these digital bricks just like physical collectibles. They attracted attention for their simplicity and scarcity, as only 100 EtherRocks exist, making them highly sought after by collectors in the NFT space.
Sotheby’s achieved $30 million in NFT sales by 2023
In terms of total 2023 revenue, Sotheby’s has achieved a total of more than $30 million in digital art, or NFT, sales, which represented an increase of about 50% year-over-year, a spokesperson told Cryptonews.com.
“There were many highlights in our 2023 sales, as we held multiple Three Arrows Capital (3AC) collection sales, including a special live auction in June that raised a total of more than $11 million. The highlight of that sale was a work by Dmitri Cherniak called The Goose, which sold for $6.2 million,” a Sotheby’s spokesperson said.
NFTs have exploded in popularity in 2021, generating more than $23 billion in trading volume, reports Rachel Wolfson of Cryptonews. In 2022, the NFT industry experienced a major decline due to the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX and a major market drop. Wolfson reports that organizations want to help implement regulatory frameworks for NFTs, but confusion surrounding these digital assets remains.
Sotheby’s analysis of digital art sales
The GRAILS: Starry Night collection sold for a total of $1,046,099 during the January auction. The presale estimate for this lot was between $339,500 and $480,700, and the final sale total more than doubled. According to Sothbey, 55% of bidders were under 40 years old and an estimated 40% of buyers were under 40 years old. The auction house said 53% of buyers were new to Sotheby’s.
Natively Digital: An Ordinals Curated Sale also sold during the January auction, selling 19 lots for a total of $1,097,534. This was more than double the low estimate for the original sale of $412,000. Sotheby’s said there were 641 bids in total, 78% of buyers were new to Sotheby’s and more than 50% of bidders were under 40 years old.
BitcoinShrooms: An Ordinals Auction took place in December and all three lots were sold for a total of $450,850. This total was five times the high estimate (combined estimate for the three lots: $60,000 – $90,000). This sale was the very first Ordinals sale at Sotheby’s.