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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.
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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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Tokenized pre-IPO shares topic ignites legal debate at Consensus Hong Kong 2026
Ultan Miller touts a blockchain-based pre-IPO index, while critics warn unauthorized equity tokenization risks legal and investor fallout.
Що варто знати:
- Hecto Finance aims to build a tokenized index of pre-IPO "Hectocorn" companies like OpenAI, SpaceX and ByteDance, giving public investors on-chain exposure to elite private firms.
- Supporters say such tokenization could broaden access to high-growth private markets, but critics warn that doing so without issuer consent risks legal uncertainty, weak investor protections and reputational damage.
- The clash between Hecto’s vision and concerns raised by industry figures, alongside episodes like Robinhood’s disputed OpenAI tokens, underscores how tokenized private equity is outpacing regulatory clarity and corporate buy-in.
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