Beeple NFT – The Third Living Artist to Manage to Sell His Work for The Highest Price in The World
Digital art delves into the most valuable works of art. A Beeple NFT was sold for 69 million dollars at the prestigious Christie’s auction house.
Beeple’s digital content sold as NFTs has seen a huge increase in recent weeks, but none seems to topple his most valued piece: Everydays: First 5,000 Days. This Beeple NFT, finally sold for such a high price that it became not only the most expensive digital work ever made, but also the third most expensive work of art ever sold at Christie’s auction for a living artist.
In 2019, Jeff Coon’s Rabbit sold for $91 million, one of the highest values for a living American artist. Many years ago, in 1972, David Hockney painted his “Portrait of the Artist” which was auctioned for $90.3 million in 2018. These are two living artists who have managed to sell their works for the highest prices. These are two physical works of art, more specifically, a sculpture, and a painting.
The third is the Beeple NFT. It was auctioned last February with a starting price of $100. By the morning, the price had risen to $14 million. But it wasn’t until the last minute that the auction reached a record high of $69,346,250.
What Are NTFs?
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are digital assets. While in the recent past we used to value material goods that we could see and touch (gold, stamps, art), we are now increasingly valuing intangible goods that we can mostly see but probably not touch, like a Beeple NFT.
Cryptocurrencies are an approximation of this principle, but NFTs go a step further and apply this concept of value accumulation to objects that are more collectible.
Pokemon digital cards are a great example of this new format of collectible stamps. The same concept was made famous by the amazing CryptoKitties craze several years ago, and that is actually still active today. Why does a digital cat avatar cost $115,000? Simple: enough people think it’s worth the price.
Unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs cannot be traded against each other because no two NFTs are the same; CryptoKitties cards are as unique as a piece of digital art or any other intangible asset.
There is an obvious similarity between an NFT and a music festival ticket: Inside that ticket is information about who bought the ticket, the date, and the location of the event. These records, like NFTs, are personal and unique.
Most of these “tokens” (which could be, for example, coins, stamps, works of art, or cryptocurrencies) are based on the standards of the Ethereum network and its blockchain.
This makes it easy to use by buying and selling them, using services like MetaMask or MyEtherWallet (wallets that allow you to interact with Ethereum) as a reference point for such transactions.
The Characteristics of an NFT
NFTs have several characteristics:
- Weirdly Unique: These tokens have many analogies to works of art, where there may be copies (it’s easier to make a digital copy of the work), but the owner can prove that they are the sole actual owner of the original work. Even if you can still easily find it on the Internet, and share it. It’s a strange situation and a change in the value we place on physical and digital works of art.
- Not interoperable: You cannot use NFT avatars/cards in other similar games.
- Indivisible: Unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs cannot be divided into smaller parts and have the value of a whole total or token, nothing more. You cannot have 1/1000 NFT.
- Indestructible: NFT data is stored on the blockchain using a smart contract, which means it cannot be destroyed, deleted, or copied.
- Freehold: Unlike music or movies, if you buy one of these things, it belongs completely to you.
- Verifiable: Blockchains can verify something more complex, they can verify the ownership of an artwork or stamp collecting related item, for example: Blockchain keeps track of who bought or sold an NFT and who is its current (absolute) owner, including the original purchase of the digital asset.
From Design to Beeple NFT: Who Is Beeple
The author of the Beeple NFT calls himself Beplee, like an electronic toy from the eighties. However, his real name is Mike Winkelman and he is a 41-year-old American born in North Fond du Lac, Missouri, United States. The professional artist, graphic artist, and animator focuses on creating virtual works of a utopian nature with a high social impact, and made up of characters from popular culture.
As its author describes it, “Every Day – The First 5,000 Days” is a work in which the fragments are ordered in an imprecise chronological order, approaching abstract, fantastic, grotesque, or absurd images, which are highly recurring themes that personify or represent society’s obsessions and fears of technology, its desire and aversion to wealth, and the recent political turmoil in the United States.
Since May 2007, he has released a new piece of digital art every day, which later became a collage of the first 5,000 works he has created in 13 years. Several times the artist admitted that he had difficulties understanding the workings and meaning of the NFT, but he quickly digested it and began to try out some works.
Unlike the traditional art market, Beeple increased his production when he realized the enormous potential of this new format, and that each sale brought him a percentage of the profits.
Some time later, Christie’s contemporary art specialist Noah Davies asked him to auction his work. What happens next will go down in history.
When asked by Reuters what he thought of the $1 million price tag for his work, Beeple thought it was really unbelievable. In any case, the designer was “unknown” until March 2021. Now enjoys the coveted status of a digital artist. And, above all, the value of his work is constantly increasing. Something unprecedented in contemporary art.
Who Is the Buyer of The Beeple NFT?
In March, Beeple sold its most valuable Beeple NFT for a record $69 million. Now the buyer wants everyone to get a free copy.
Buyer Vignesh Sundaresan aka MetaKovan said he would be happy for everyone to download a copy of the Beeple NFT. This one called Everydays: The First 5,000 Days.
That’s because Sundaresan, a cryptocurrency investor and co-founder of BitAccess, a bitcoin ATM startup, thinks “information wants to be free.” But keeping things on the internet in walled gardens is like a paywall, and it does not work well. For him, everyone should be able to enjoy NFTs. A kind of blockchain-related digital art, without paying for it.
Despite the popularity of NFTs, their enthusiasts and critics still debate the true value of digital assets. Enthusiasts claim that NFTs hold the key to unlocking the future of the Internet known as the Metaverse. Critics say they are nothing more than a file you can right-click and download. One reviewer even downloaded all the files to prove his point.
In April, Sundaresan said that investing in NFTs was “shocking than investing in cryptocurrency.” And argued that enthusiasm for the asset class would not last forever. Instead, it guarantees that high-value items will be limited by an unlimited number of low-value items.
What Is the Future of NFTs?
The scarcity and uniqueness of NFTs make them ideal for many use cases such as gaming, music, and finance.
For example, in-game NFTs allow users to verify the authenticity of unique in-game items such as weapons and terrain. Similarly, NFT games, known as play to win, allow users to earn income by playing games.
Similar to art, NFTs can incorporate sound to craft collectible musical compositions. The industry recognizes that only a few musicians can generate substantial income from their art. NFTs hold the potential to make the music industry model fairer. Furthermore, NFTs can address this issue by employing blockchain streaming platforms or by tracking royalties on the blockchain.
NFTs can also serve as tickets for concerts and events.
This creates a secondary market for NFTs based on the access they provide. Although the NFT market and subsequent boom have subsided in 2022, the NFT space continues to grow and reinvent itself.
We are likely to see many new iterations and use cases for NFTs. In fact, you can even be an NFT creator. If you’re already an artist or creator of some kind, NFTs allow you to earn royalties without an agent.
Unlike traditional art galleries, many NFT marketplaces allow anyone to participate. Also, NFT is digital so you can display your creations anywhere in the world. Just like with the Beeple NFT, you could become famous overnight if you post your art for everyone to see.
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