The well-known auction house – Sotheby’s – was set to hold a highly anticipated auction of 104 non-fungible CryptoPunk (NFT) tokens earlier this week. However, the auction house canceled the event minutes before the launch.
‘Decided to HODL’
Several months ago, a pseudonymous collector with the initials 0x650d purchased the lot titled “Punk It!” for $7 million worth of crypto. A few weeks back, Sotheby’s announced it will auction the NFTs from the collection, with price estimations showing between $20 million and $30 million. Nonetheless, the collectibles owner withdrew from the event shortly before it began.
His decision resulted in significant disappointment from users waiting to participate in the auction. The founder of decentralized media platform RugRadio – Farokh – said:
“Bro, you stop acting like you rugged Sotheby’s, you made everyone look stupid. Even the press here is laughing at us because of you. Stop hiding the guilt behind dumb ass memes.”
Later, the seller posted another tweet, hinting that the reason for the cancellation might be Sotheby’s high commission fees.
Minted in 2017, CryptoPunks are among the first NFT collections. Currently, they are some of the most popular and expensive digital collectibles as some spent millions of dollars to acquire them. Earlier this month, CryptoPunk #5822 broke the records as Deepak Thapliyal – Chain’s CEO – purchased it for nearly 8,000 ETH. At the moment of the transaction, the amount equaled almost $24 million.
Sotheby’s interaction with the crypto world
The leading fine art and luxury auction house has been part of the digital asset universe for quite some time now. In November last year, he teamed up with Future Perfect Ventures to invest $20 million in tech company NFT Mojito. Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart commented on the case:
“We believe in the future of using blockchain to expand ownership of digital assets. There is a huge amount of focus and interest in NFTs… Sotheby’s mission is to promote access and ownership of exceptional art and luxury objects, so focusing and developing this area makes a lot of sense.”
In January this year, the company announced that it would hold an auction for a rare 555.55 carat diamond that could be sold for digital assets. Earlier this month, American entrepreneur Richard Heart bought it for $4.3 million worth of crypto and renamed it after his business – “HEX.com diamond”.
