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Sotheby’s Takes Its NFT Experiment Into the Metaverse

“Sotheby’s Metaverse” will hold its first sale from Oct. 18–26 with a collection featuring 53 works.

Bijgewerkt 11 mei 2023, 7:07 p..m.. Gepubliceerd 14 okt 2021, 4:00 p..m.. Vertaald door AI
A flag flies outside Sotheby's auction house on New Bond Street ahead of a preview of 'The Midas Touch' auction in London, U.K., on Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. The auction is Sotheby's first auction dedicated entirely to gold, according to a release by the auction house. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A flag flies outside Sotheby's auction house on New Bond Street ahead of a preview of 'The Midas Touch' auction in London, U.K., on Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. The auction is Sotheby's first auction dedicated entirely to gold, according to a release by the auction house. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Sotheby’s, the 277-year-old British auction house, is staking its claim in the metaverse with the launch of a new platform called “Sotheby’s Metaverse” that allows visitors to view digital artworks available at auction, as well as learn about the collectors and artists behind the non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

“Sotheby’s Metaverse” will hold its first sale from Oct. 18–26 with a collection called “Natively Digital 1.2: The Collectors.” Featuring 53 works from 19 NFT collectors, the collection is the second iteration of Sotheby’s first NFT group sale, Natively Digital.

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Sotheby’s new platform is powered by Mojito, a commerce suite for creating NFT marketplaces that offers fiat and crypto payments as well as minting functionality. Mojito is optimized for Ethereum and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible networks.

Cool Cat #160, part of the Sotheby's Metaverse initial auction (Sotheby's)
Cool Cat #160, part of the Sotheby's Metaverse initial auction (Sotheby's)

The metaverse is a space generated by the convergence of virtual worlds, augmented reality and internet services. By offering a collective virtual experience, it has introduced new opportunities to creators, gamers and artists.

Read more: Sotheby’s Opens Virtual Replica of Its London Galleries in Decentraland

Back in April, Sotheby’s held its first sale of NFTs by pseudonymous artist Pak, which fetched $16.8 million over a three-day drop. In March, an NFT drop by Beeple hosted by Christie’s auction house sold for a record $69.3 million. The appetite for NFTs in the high-end luxury market has remained strong, with Dolce & Gabbana’s recent NFT collection, the Collezione Genesi, taking in approximately $5.65 million.

“We have spent months exploring every aspect of the digital art landscape, aligning with some of the most influential minds of the NFT movement to architect a custom marketplace that prioritizes curation and customization,” said Max Moore, Sotheby’s co-head of the digital art sales and head of contemporary art auctions.

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KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market

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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.

Wat u moet weten:

  • KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
  • This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
  • Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
  • Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
  • Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.

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Stablecoins moved $35 trillion last year but only 1% of it was for 'real world' payments

A Visa card being held to next to a payment terminal. (CardMapr.nl/Unsplash)

While stablecoins settled around $35 trillion last year, only around 1% of that represented genuine payments like remittances and payroll, a new report found.

Wat u moet weten:

  • Stablecoins processed more than $35 trillion in transactions last year, but only about 1% of that reflected real-world payments, a report by McKinsey and Artemis Analytics found.
  • The study estimated that roughly $390 billion in genuine stablecoin payments, such as vendor payments, payrolls, remittances and capital markets settlements.
  • Despite rapid growth and increasing interest from traditional payment firms like Visa and Stripe, true stablecoin payments still account for just a tiny fraction of the more than $2 quadrillion global payments market, the report said.