Christie’s to launch an NFT marketplace- Decoding details

ambcrypto.com:

Famed British auction house Christie’s has announced the launch of its dedicated NFT marketplace.

Christie’s yesterday (27 September) announced on Twitter that it is going to launch a dedicated NFT marketplace on Ethereum, built in collaboration with leading Web 3.0 groups, the NFT smart contract development Manifold, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis and metaverse development firm Spatial.

CalledChristie’s 3.0, the venture aims to facilitate the sale of NFTs completely on the blockchain.

Beginning 28 September, the inaugural sale puts nine new NFTs by the New York-based digital artist, Diana Sinclair, at the forefront. The sale ends on 11 October.  

Founded in the 18th century, Christie’s is one of the most prominent auction houses in the world. Going by sales value, it is only thesecond leading auction house next to Sotheby’s. In 2021, the sales value of Christie’s and Sotheby’s were worth $7.1 billion and $7.3 billion respectively.

In September last year, Sotheby’sauctioned a collection of 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs for over $24.4 million.

Source: Statista

NFTs and Web 3.0 are not new market segments for Christie’s though.

In October 2020, Christie’sauctioned London-based artist Ben Gentilli’s NFT artwork named ‘Block 21’ for over $130,000. The artwork represented Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous person who founded Bitcoin.

In March 2021, itauctioned American artist Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann’s ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days,’ Christie’s first-ever purely digital artwork on the blockchain, for $69.3 million.

It is thesecond most expensive NFT ever sold so far. Pak’s ‘The Merge’ remains the most expensive NFT so far, sold for $91.8 million on the Nifty Gateway.

In July this year, Christie’slaunched a venture fund