Bitcoin Artwork ‘Quantum Cat’ Commands Impressive $250K Price Tag at Sotheby’s Auction
Sotheby’s has announced the successful sale of a Bitcoin Ordinals inscription from the Quantum Cat project. Known as the “Genesis Cat,” fetching an impressive sum of over $250,000.
Created by digital artist FAR, the inscription received over 50 bids, culminating in a winning bid of 6.31 BTC. Equivalent to approximately $254,000. The Quantum Cats collection, featuring 3,333 images inspired by the early Bitcoin network code. Specifically the ‘OP_CAT’ op code introduced by Satoshi and later disabled, was valued at over $66,000 to create on the Bitcoin blockchain. The broader collection’s sale is scheduled for January 29. Sotheby’s reported a remarkable success for the Natively Digital curated Ordinals sale. Generating over 26 BTC (around $1,097,000) with 641 bids and 100% of auction lots sold.
Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby’s head of digital and contemporary art, expressed congratulations to the artists and collectors involved, highlighting that half of the sale surpassed their high estimates. Although Sotheby’s has previously handled NFT sales on Ethereum, this marks its first Bitcoin Ordinals-centric sale. Past Ethereum NFT sales by the auction house include notable items like “The Goose,” an Art Blocks NFT, which sold for $6.2 million last June.
Clever Robot News Desk 23rd January 2024
