[NEWS] Sotheby’s Initiates an NFT Marketplace


October 22, 2021

 

Sotheby's Now Has Its Own NFT Marketplace. (Image: Sotheby's)


Last Friday, Sotheby’s launched its NFT exclusive marketplace, Metaverse for collectors of NFTs. It’s the first of its kind among blue-chip auction houses, and all NFT sales at Sotheby’s will now take place on this cutting-edge platform. Yesterday, the platform began its inaugural sale.

 

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital object that can be a drawing, animation, piece of music, photo, or video with a certificate of authenticity created by blockchain technology. This authentication by a network of computers is considered inviolable.

 

Pak, “Rubik’s Lure,” 2020


The platform offers totally new technical improvements that the traditional Sotheby’s site could not previously implement on their main website.  The layout of the Metaverse website, similar in format to NFT-specific platforms such as OpenSea and Nifty Gateway, is designed to display the NFTS so that viewers can easily see the transaction history of any piece. Yet, unlike these other platforms, Metaverse offers a description of each piece’s significance, alongside the artist’s biography. Additionally, On Sotheby’s Metaverse, buyers will be able to create a personal profile, with an avatar designed by the crypto designer Pak.

 

They will be able to make payments in fiat currencies or cryptocurrencies including Ethereum, bitcoin and USDC, Sotheby’s said in a press release. The first sale, called “Natively Digital 1.2: The Collectors,” will take place between Oct. 18 and Oct. 26, with 53 lots.

 

The co-head of Sotheby’s Digital Sales says, “We wanted to have a very diverse sale in terms of the category but also in terms of price point. We wanted collectibles, gaming NFTs, early NFTs from 2015, 2016, everything.”



 

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