Christie’s debuts new on-chain NFT marketplace and shares upcoming investments in the Web3 space
British auction house Christie’s has just launched a blockchain marketplace fully dedicated to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), demonstrating leadership in the crypto art market. Dubbed ‘Christie’s 3.0’, the fully on-chain platform sells a curation of NFT-based artwork as well as other categories in design, luxury, music, science, and technology—such as the first Wikipedia edit. The platform was created in collaboration with Manifold, a start-up focusing on smart contracts, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, and the Spatial metaverse, powering their virtual gallery. Contrary to previous NFT auctions using traditional auction tools and Web2 infrastructure, Christie’s 3.0 now supports a fully on-chain transaction on the Ethereum network, from start to finish.
Christie’s foray into Web3 follows after the launch of the Christie’s Fund—a venture capital investment in Web3 and blockchain innovations in the support of art-related financial products and solutions. Global Head of Christie’s Ventures Devang Thakkar reveals to Tatler, “We are looking at startups that make it easier for clients to onboard and adopt Web3 tools, and make it seamless to consume art via means of technology.”
Christie’s has since placed its first investment in Vancouver-based LayerZero Labs, a Web3 company that builds decentralised applications (dApps) making assets compatible across multiple blockchains. The firm plans to expand its portfolio of investments from mixed-reality experiences to holograms.
Shaking Up the Art World
Known as the luxury auction house to have sold the most expensive NFT artwork in history so far, Christie’s continues to make the headlines for other high-ticket NFT auction sales including Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and World of Woman, to name a few. “We activated the NFT space with the historic sale of Beeple’s 'Everydays: the First 5000 Days' in March 2021, realising USD$69 million. Since then we’ve stayed committed and continue to be the venue for collectors to discover the best NFTs and digital artworks of this emerging category,” comments Nicole Sales Giles, Christie's Director of Digital Art Sales. Today, the global trading volume of NFTs has surged over US$54 billion this year and the auction house exceeded US$100 million in NFT sales in 2021.
In this new venture, Christie’s 3.0 will see nine new NFTs from 18-year-old internationally awarded artist Diana Sinclair. Her multimedia artworks are created with artificial intelligence and will be minted at a range of ETH4 to ETH8 (around US$5,500 to US$11,000 at the time of writing). Buyers are to connect their crypto wallet to enter the bidding process with Ether. Unlike others, Christie’s 3.0 is not an open marketplace—meaning sellers cannot directly list NFTs for sale—but instead is a highly curated platform, with works and auctions selected very specifically by Christie’s experts. Auctions will be held online at Christie’s 3.0 at select times throughout the calendar year.
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