Sotheby’s Bored Ape NFT Auction Attracts Nearly USD 20M In Bids
In another major non-fungible token (NFT) sale underway, New York-headquartered multinational corporation Sotheby’s is auctioning 107 Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and 101 Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) NFTs developed by Yuga Labs.
Bidding on BAYC tokens is set to close on September 9, 02:01 P.M. UTC, but the price offered for the Yacht Club collection has already exceeded the initial estimate of between USD 12m and USD 18m. As of September 6, 10:00 A.M. UTC, the current bid is USD 19m, with a total of 44 bids placed to date.
For the Kennel Club collection, for which bidders can place offers until September 9, 02:02 pm UTC, the estimate of between USD 1.5m and USD 2m has not been met yet. A total of 36 bids have been submitted as of September 6, 10:00 A.M. UTC, with the highest bid totaling USD 550,000.
Yuga Labs’ flagship BAYC is a combination of a digital art collection and an online community to which each of the 10,000 minted NFTs “doubles as your membership to a swamp club for apes.”
The NFTs were put up for sale by their developer this past April, priced at ETH 0.08 each. Since then, however, BAYC’s value has substantially increased, as indicated by the bids placed in the ongoing Sotheby’s auction.
Similarly to other trending NFT collections, BAYC has been boosted by the landmark March 2021 sale by British auction house Christie’s at which “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS” by digital artist Beeple was sold for as much as USD 69.35m. The auction made Beeple one of the top three most valuable living artists, and his NFT the most expensive digital artwork to be ever sold.
The NFT market has experienced a rollercoaster over the past year, and some of this summer’s major NFT auctions tested buyers’ price ceilings, revealing that artwork by a budding artist can fetch USD 2.16m, while source code by an acclaimed inventor can reach USD 5.4m.
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