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kleinbl00  ·  1134 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Beeple NFT sells for nearly $70 million at Christie's

Something nobody is talking about is that this one auction means that Christie's is probably holding something like $10m worth of ETH right now.

If they're capable of taking the long view - and as an organization that profits off the sale of objects hundreds of years old, they're likely more capable than most - there are probably clever people at Christie's noticing that this type of trade doesn't actually require them. There's no security needed, there's no sale to broker, there's no authenticity to vouch for... no reason, really, to pay Christie's 25% on anything selling for less than half a million dollars. That effectively makes NFT and NFT-protected objets d'art trade at a 25% discount to regular works... as soon as everyone figures out they don't need to pay Christie's $10m to give artists $70m.

I would expect the auction houses to lean into NFTs really heavily in order to make their money while they can.