Christie’s NFT Platform
In an official tweet released on September 27, Christie’s announced the launch of an on-chain NFT platform. The on-chain platform is tagged as ‘Christie’s 3.0’, representing the first ever on-chain deployment by any global auction house. In the tweet, Christie’s stated that it built the platform from scratch with three major companies in the Web 3.0 ecosystem: Manifold, Chainanalysis, and Spatial. Manifold is an NFT minting platform, while Spatial specializes in building metaverse spaces and experiences.
Notably, all Christie 3.0 auctions, including pre-sale and post-sale transactions, will be executed on the Ethereum network. The platform’s inaugural sale kick-started on September 28 with nine unique NFTs created by Diana Sinclair. Diana Sinclair has made a name as a renowned visual artist and NFT creator.
Diana Sinclair
Last year, Fortune named Diana Sinclair as one of the most influential creatives in the NFT scene, alongside Beeple and Jay Z. She also collaborated with Whitney Houston’s estate to create an NFT that sold for $1 million. Sinclair’s exclusive NFTs will be listed for auction on Christie’s on-chain platform till October 11. In addition to the on-chain auction, the NFTs will also be displayed in a separate exhibition at Christie’s New York office.
Christie’s, Investing in the Future
While Christie’s 3.0 represents a huge milestone in the general auction space, Christie’s is not new to the NFT and metaverse ecosystem.
Despite being over two centuries old, the auction house wastes no time leveraging trends like NFTs and the metaverse. For example, during the NFT boom last year, Christie’s successfully auctioned Beeple’s ‘EveryDays’ NFT for $69 million. This NFT sale is the most expensive NFT sale ever executed. Christie’s also partnered with OpenSea to launch an on-chain NFT auction. The auction closed at $3.6 million. In total, Christie’s sold NFTs worth over $150 million in 2021 alone.
Christie’s aim to dominate the digital art sector transcends NFTs. It also includes the metaverse. Last year, the auction house announced that it would create a subsidiary solely focusing on Web 3.0, NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain deployments. The most recent collaboration with Spatial also marks significant progress with Christie’s metaverse presence.
Ultimately, the on-chain NFT platform will pave the way for users to navigate and purchase exclusive NFT pieces. Other auction houses seem to have adopted a similar strategy. For instance, the American auction house Sotheby’s recently launched a custom NFT marketplace called Sotheby’s Metaverse.