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Banksy Paintings Sell for 3,093 ETH in Auction House First

Two paintings from contemporary artist Banksy sold for over $12 million in the first Sotheby’s sale denominated in ETH.

Updated May 11, 2023, 7:05 p.m. Published Nov 19, 2021, 12:15 a.m.
Sotheby's auction of Bansky art (Eli Tan/CoinDesk)
Sotheby's auction of Bansky art (Eli Tan/CoinDesk)

A pair of paintings from contemporary artist Banksy have sold for a combined 3,093 ETH in an auction at Sotheby’s on Thursday night.

As CoinDesk previously reported, the sale is the first time the auction house has denominated a sale in cryptocurrency. The pieces, “Trolley Hunters” and “Love Is In The Air” (2006) were estimated to sell for $5 million-$7 million and $4 million-$6 million respectively, and both largely met expectations with sales worth $6,698,400 and $8,077,200 – a combined 3,093 ETH.

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Accepting bids in crypto is part of a larger cryptocurrency-focused push from the auctioneers. In October, Sotheby’s launched “Sotheby’s Metaverse,” a virtual gallery for the live auction event.

Crypto fans are now closely watching an auction scheduled for later in the night: the sale of one of 13 remaining copies of the United States Constitution, which will include bidding from a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

A DAO is a group of people on the internet using various tools to exercise governance decisions relating to blockchain protocols, pooled investments or any number of other experiments.

Read more: ‘I Think We’re Doing This’: Inside One DAO’s $20M Plot to Purchase the US Constitution

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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.

What to know:

  • 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.
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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.

What to know:

  • 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.