The honeymoon phase of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is in the rear-view mirror, firmly settling the debate, "Will NFTs succeed?" Today, we ponder a more subtle question: "Which blockchain asset sector will emerge as Web3's golden goose?"
While Profile Pictures (PFP), Game and Metaverse Assets, Collectibles, and Art each have their moments of prominence, a landmark sale this month suggests that art could be the star. It's not just an ephemeral spotlight, it's an important landmark in a new chapter in art history.
On June 15, the world saw a big Generative Art NFT Sale, and big might be an understatement. At the hammer blow of Sotheby's Grails: Part II auction, Ringers #879 by Dmitri Cherniak, also known as "The Goose", sold for $5.4 million ($6.2 million). dollars with fees included), the second-highest price ever for generative art. The record is held by another NFT from The Ringers collection, #109, which sold for US$7.1 million in 2021.
#AuctionUpdate: One of the most important works of post-blockchain generative art,@dmitricherniak's Ringers #879 (The Goose) just sold for $6.2 million, making it the 2nd highest generative art sale of all time. #SothebysGRAILS https://t.co/dKyqxGbAIZ pic.twitter.com/zkxoP21M9e
— Sotheby's Metaverse (@Sothebysverse) June 15, 2023
The Ringers, a thousand-piece NFT collection on Art Blocks, spawned "The Goose" in 2021. Even then, this piece stood out as a shining example of the magic generative artists can create with code when 'we give them bumpers but not a strict path. Dmitri Cherniak's algorithm designed not only predicted pegs with random numbers, wrap orientation and colors, but also a perfect goose. This remarkable result, which seemed like a one-in-a-million chance, became the face of collecting, and potentially the face of generative art. You could say it's almost poetic, given NFT traders' obsession with trading NFTs featuring animal monkeys, monkeys, and penguins.
The identity of the buyer of "The Goose" is remarkable. Formerly owned by defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, “The Goose” is now in the hands of Punk6529’s 6529 Capital. This change demonstrates that NFT art is attracting major investment from large funds, including traditional investors.
Punk6529 is not just a mega investor and collector. This anonymous CryptoPunk is a strong supporter of NFTs, who also invests a lot of time in building Web3. Their fund's expensive NFT grails, such as Rare Pepes, CryptoPunks, Bored Apes, AI Generate Nude Portraits, Zancans, XCOPYs, and Fidenzas, exemplify a deep understanding of the NFT art market, while active involvement in projects such as the open metaverse project, OM, and the meme art collection, The Memes, reflect a deep understanding of NFT culture. The combination of these aspects reveals a clear vision and a conviction in the historical value that these works of art can have in the future.
In the mainstream art world, iconic paintings change hands for tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars. Whether it's Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi which sold for US$450 million in 2017 or the more recent US$198 million sale of Rembrandt's The Standard Bearer, there is no almost no limit to what serious art collectors are willing to spend on historical art. Against this backdrop, Punk6529's belief game may seem bold right now, but there's a chance that one day we'll revisit the sale of "The Goose" as the historic event it really could be, leaving some wonder why they didn't. 't take their hit when "The Goose" was only $5.4 million.
It may still be too early to call an NFT piece of art historic, although we seem to be firmly on that path. In fact, market trends within the NFT art space over the past few years underscore this progression. Two years ago, the iconic 'Everydays: The First 5000 Days' by Mike Winklemann (Beeple) sold at Christie's for US$69 million and since then several other high-priced art sales have contributed to legitimize art on the blockchain. Julian Assange and Pak's Clock sold for a whopping $52.7 million, Beeple's Human One for $28.9 million, XCOPY's Right-click and Save as Guy for $7 million, Beeple's Crossroad for 6, $6 million, and the list goes on.
The success of Sotheby's Grails: Part I and II auctions this year further suggests that a new art renaissance is blossoming on the blockchain, together generating over $13 million in sales across 44 works of art. generative art. But while generative art was pushed back into the spotlight with the massive sale of Ringers #879, you only need to zoom out to see the full picture of the growth of generative art on the blockchain.
Art Blocks, the world's first generative art NFT platform, has recorded over $1.4 billion in secondary sales in just a few years, ranking it fifth in the all-time NFT collections chart of CryptoSlam in terms of sales volume. Art is now in the conversation with familiar NFT names like Bored Apes and CryptoPunks, and I think that's just a taste of what's to come.
Punk6529's big bet on "The Goose" reflects confidence not only in Dmitri Cherniak's The Ringers collection, but also in the future of NFT art as a whole.
ChatGPT and other easy-to-access AI tools ensure that generative art will continue to grow, bringing new creations by allowing anyone to learn basic code in ways that weren't possible before. . And marketplaces like Art Blocks, FxHash, Verse, Christie's 3.0 and Sotheby's Metaverse offer this new generation of artists a place to make a living from their craft.
Generative art itself, once known as a genre where patterns, palettes and shapes dance around a digital canvas, has now matured into exquisite compositions that can easily be mistaken for traditional paintings. This impressive development parallels the growth of the NFT market itself, highlighting why entities like Punk6529 are investing and why auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's are eagerly introducing generative NFT art into their offerings.
Just this week, Sotheby's launched a new on-chain generative art program powered by Art Blocks Engine, perfectly underscoring the auction house's commitment to NFT art. Their first auction features works by Vera Molnar, the first female digital artist and one of Dimitri Cherniak's known influences.
We have entered a defining period for generative art, a time when artists like Cherniak will be cited as influential for a whole new generation. Over the next decade, the life of Punk6529's 6529 Capital fund, artists will continue to iterate and push the genre forward, while creating new grails. Some of these works will also be considered historic, and in the rearview mirror of the future, we will look back to see the landmark pieces that paved the way for them. No matter how far we go and how fast we get there, it's the face of a goose that we'll see staring back at us.
Buckle up.