Digital collage by US artist sold for $69.4 million, here's why such works are all the rage

Beeple is an American digital artist based in South Carolina whose real name is Mike Winkelmann. He’s been creating digital sketches using 3D tools on a daily basis for the past 13 years.
Digital collage titled “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days,' by an artist named Beeple.
Digital collage titled “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days,' by an artist named Beeple.

A digital collage  titled "Everydays: The First 5,000 Days" made by US artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, has been sold for a whopping USD 69.4 million. 

The transaction made global headlines and buoyed already-mushrooming interest in such digital objects known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that have captured the attention of artists and collectors alike.

What are non-fungible tokens?

In simple terms, a fungible token is an asset which can be exchanged on a one-for-one basis, such as money or bitcoins. Each such token has the exact same value and can be traded freely. On the other hand, a non-fungible object has its own distinct value, like an old house or a classic car. 

NFTs are digital certificates of authenticity that can be attached to pretty much anything that comes in a digital form such as audio files, video clips, animated stickers etc.

NFTs confirm an item's ownership by recording the details on a digital ledger known as a blockchain, which is public and stored on computers across the internet, making it nearly impossible to lose or destroy.

Who else has joined the craze for NFTs?

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey put his first ever tweet - “just setting up my twttr" - up for online auction as an NFT, with bids reaching as high as $2.5 million, and he promised to donate the proceeds to charity. Rock band Kings of Leon is offering a version of their latest album with the tokens that come with extras. A blockchain company bought a piece of work by British artist Banksy, burned it and then put a digital version on sale through a non-fungible token. The National Basketball Association is teaming up in a venture to sell virtual sports cards backed by the tokens. 

William Shatner of “Star Trek” fame sold 90,000 virtual trading cards last year for $1 each. Electronic musician Grimes sold $6 million worth of her digital art last month, including a video clip featuring winged cherubs floating in pastel dreamscapes that went for $389,000. Clips of NBA star LeBron James dunking are selling for as much as $225,000. Actress Lindsey Lohan sold an image of her face. You can also buy virtual land in video games and meme characters like Nyan Cat.

Digital artist Anne Spalter started out as an NFT skeptic but has now sold multiple artworks using the tokens. The latest was a video called “Dark Castles” -- of mysteriously distorted castles generated by artificial intelligence technology -- that sold for $2,752.

Who is Beeple?

Beeple is an American digital artist based in South Carolina whose real name is Mike Winkelmann. He’s been creating digital sketches using 3D tools on a daily basis for the past 13 years. Auction house Christie’s calls his work “abstract, fantastical, grotesque or absurd." He has 1.9 million followers on Instagram.

In December, the first extensive auction of his art brought in $3.5 million, an eye-catching amount that was surpassed by this week's record-shattering sale of his collage “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days" for nearly $70 million, paid in a digital currency known as Ethereum.

(With inputs from AP)

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