NFTs Rise to International Stage! Original Code Artwork Sells for $130,000 in Bitcoin at Christie's Auction

For the first time, NFT-based crypto collectibles have made their debut at a major international auction house - Christie's. Among them, the Bitcoin-themed art series "Portraits of a Mind" saw one of its pieces, "Block 21," sell for a record-breaking $131,250, surpassing all expectations and setting the highest price ever achieved in an NFT auction.

"Block 21"

It is understood that the blockchain art collection called "Portraits of a Mind" consists of 40 paintings, each containing the original code of Bitcoin v0.1.0 with 12.3 million digits. Block 21 is one of them, containing approximately 322,048 digits of code. All 40 pieces include over 300,000 digits of original code. When all the codes are put together, the complete series of works reveals a portrait of the anonymous Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto.

The collection "Portraits of a Mind" was created by artist Ben Gentilli under the name Robert Alice. It took three years to hand-draw the 12.3 million digits of code. Gentilli stated:

The core value of this work is "how to create true cultural value in the Bitcoin space?" Personally, what constantly comes to my mind is its original code, which is indeed the essence of Bitcoin culture. The original code will be one of the most important historical documents of the 21st century, and I want to preserve it as one would the "Magna Carta."

NFT on the International Stage

Founded in 1766, Christie’s has been dedicated to providing global collectors with auctions of various collectibles such as art, jewelry, watches, and fine wines, and is a major competitor of Sotheby’s.

Christie's initially estimated that the selling price of Block 21 could be between $12,000 and $18,000. The starting price at the auction was $22,000, which quickly rose to $105,000, eventually selling for $131,250.

The identity of the buyer of Block 21 remains anonymous. Earlier this year, Gentilli had sold the first 20 pieces to collectors from the art and crypto industries. One of the first buyers, Jehan Chu, co-founder of the crypto investment firm kenetic.capital, also congratulated today (10/8) on Twitter stating:

I am personally proud and admire Robert Alice for not only bringing the first NFT to a mainstream auction house but also setting a record for the highest price for an NFT in a public auction. Congratulations.

The NFT version of "Portraits of a Mind" is sold on the Async Art platform. The previous price record was set by an NFT artwork called "Right Place & Right Time," a Bitcoin GIF image, which sold for 262 Ether on the auction platform Async Art, approximately $100,000 at the exchange rate on the day of the transaction.