Cryptonews News

Art Auction Giant Sotheby’s Unveils On-Chain NFT Secondary Marketplace

Blockchain

NFT Non-fungible tokens

Last updated:

October 23, 2023 07:01 EDT

Journalist

Sead Fadilpašić

Journalist

Sead Fadilpašić

About Author

Sead specializes in writing factual and informative articles to help the public navigate the ever-changing world of crypto. He has extensive experience in the blockchain industry, where he has served...

Author Profile

Last updated:

October 23, 2023 07:01 EDT

Why Trust Cryptonews

Cryptonews has covered the cryptocurrency industry topics since 2017, aiming to provide informative insights to our readers. Our journalists and analysts have extensive experience in market analysis and blockchain technologies. We strive to maintain high editorial standards, focusing on factual accuracy and balanced reporting across all areas - from cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects to industry events, products, and technological developments. Our ongoing presence in the industry reflects our commitment to delivering relevant information in the evolving world of digital assets. Read more about Cryptonews

Ad Disclosure

We believe in full transparency with our readers. Some of our content includes affiliate links, and we may earn a commission through these partnerships.

*blood in the streets, late to the ball* by Claire Silver. Source: metaverse.sothebys.com

Major auction house Sotheby’s has launched a non-fungible token (NFT) secondary marketplace that allows users to buy curated NFTs on the Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) networks.

The sales system will be integrated and fully on-chain, enabling the buyers to pay in ETH or MATIC, the native token of the two blockchains.

The next evolution of #SothebysMetaverse is here! The most trusted and dynamic destination to collect, buy and sell remarkable digital works.

Explore: https://t.co/hZvYIkO3xx pic.twitter.com/dCkaCKlXVm
— Sotheby's Metaverse (@Sothebysverse) May 1, 2023

Furthermore, Sotheby’s Metaverse, which is the art auction house’s Web3 arm, will allow direct transactions between the platform’s users.

Featuring a rotating, curated selection of leading artists hand-picked by Sotheby’s specialists, providing expert guidance and context for each work, from thematic presentations to artist spotlights, for an easy-to-navigate experience designed for discovery.
— Sotheby's Metaverse (@Sothebysverse) May 1, 2023

There is a 2.5% seller fee, it added, while artist resale royalties will be honored directly on-chain through marketplace smart contracts.

The platform will automatically pay artists according to the royalty rate they select.

However, “NFT owners are also free to take their NFTs to other exchanges that don’t honor royalties,” Forbes reported.

Thirteen previously approved artists are allowed to sell their NFTs even before Sotheby’s has seen them, meaning they don’t have to run the art by the auction house.

They’ll be able to sell existing and yet-to-be-created artworks.

The artists include Tyler Hobbs, Claire Silver, Sarah Zucker, XCOPYPY -0.1%, Diana Sinclair, IX Shells, Refik Anadol, Sofia Crespo, Sam Spratt, Pindar van Arman, Osinachi, Hackatao, and Sebastião Salgado.

“The opportunity to expand Sotheby’s Metaverse with a fully on-chain peer-to-peer market is an important step forward in our evolution within the digital art and collectible space,” said in a press release Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby’s vice president and head of NFTs and digital art.

Sotheby’s Metaverse Marketplace :
– Artists first
– Fully on chain
– 2.5% fee
– Artist’s royalties enforced at the marketplace’s smart contract level
– highly curated
– Aggregator of 1/1s cross marketplaces
– Content focus
– Defend and promote artists above just offering for… pic.twitter.com/IpfD5TpjRB
— Michael Bouhanna (@michaelbouhanna) May 1, 2023

The nearly 300-year-old auction house entered the NFT space back in April 2021 and even housed several record-breaking sales that year, such as a CryptoPunk that sold for $11.8 million and a Bored Ape Yacht Club piece that sold for 3.4 million.

More recently, in March this year, Sotheby’s hosted a benefit auction in honor of International Women’s Day, titled “My Body, My Business,” in collaboration with UnicornDAO, a collectors’ decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) devoted to women’s and gender-fluid NFTs.

In mid-April, the house revived its “Glitch: Beyond Binary” NFT auction after facing backlash over the lack of diversity with the initial launch.

Several days later, it was revealed that Sotheby’s was preparing to host an auction for a collection of the NFTs seized from the now-defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

Sotheby’s said it would auction the Grails collection, comprised of digital artwork that belonged to 3AC and its Starry Night Capital NFT-collecting fund, in a bid to recoup a portion of the $3 billion the collapsed fund owes to creditors.

____