The record-setting sale of an NFT in March has been credited with helping to increase awareness and valuations of non-fungible tokens. The NFT sale also came at a time when Ethereum was still trading under $2000.
What Happened: In March, artist Beeple saw his “The First 5000 Days” sell for $69 million through a Christie’s auction. The auction began on Feb. 25 with a starting bid of $100.
The sale ranked Beeple, whose real name is Mark Winkelmann, “among the top three most valuable living artists,” according to Christie’s.
“NFTs in general really touch on all things that I’m interested in. It’s got the art aspect…the technology aspect and it’s got the investing aspect,” Beeple told Anthony Pompliano in an interview.
Beeple admitted that NFTs could be a bubble and could also provide long-term value as an asset class.
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Investing $1,000: The NFT sale created huge buzz for the market and led to many 1/1 pieces from famous artists being snapped up. It also created the launch of many NFT projects with multiple pieces and different traits.
Many of the new NFTs were launched on the Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) network, which led to a surge in valuation over the last few months in the price of the cryptocurrency.
Beeple was paid $69 million in Ethereum for the auction. After auction fees and taxes, Beeple received $53 million in ETH, which he converted to U.S. dollars.
The NFT artist admitted that the volatility of ETH spooked him, in an interview with The New Yorker.
“I’m not remotely a crypto-purist. I was making digital art long before any of this s*it, and if all this f***ing NFT stuff went away tomorrow I would still be making digital art,” Beeple said.
By cashing out his Ethereum early, Beeple missed out on seeing the $69 million shoot up in valuation. Today, that $69 million would be worth $150.87 million.
Investors who put money into Ethereum when Beeple’s auction sold have been pleasantly rewarded.
Ethereum traded at a high of $1,843.82 on March 11. A $1,000 investment could have bought 0.5424 ETH. That $1,000 investment would be worth $2,351.06 today, based on an Ethereum price of $4334.56 at the time of writing.
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