Sotheby's Records $35 Million in NFT Auction Revenue for 2023
Sotheby's, the venerable 279-year-old British auction house, reported $35 million in revenue from NFT auctions in 2023.
Michael Bouhanna, Vice President of Sotheby's, stated that the auction house achieved this milestone amid what he called "one of the most exciting years for digital art." They noted the highest fees ever recorded for auctions related to these works.
2023 at Sothebys will remain one of the most exciting years for Digital Art!
— Michael Bouhanna (@michaelbouhanna) December 23, 2023
🚨 What We Achieved 🚨
Close to $35 million in sales.
Launch of a fully on-chain secondary marketplace that honors creators' royalties.
Our very first dedicated live auction with more than 300… pic.twitter.com/rabrxntz9Z
Throughout 2023, Sotheby's conducted over 25 digital art auctions, with the first live-streamed auction attracting 300 participants and generating $12 million, accounting for nearly 35% of the year's total revenue.
Notably, 2023 also saw the highest-priced digital art auction to date, with Dmitri Cherniak's NFT "Ringers #879" fetching $6.2 million.
The year marked significant strides into the digital art arena for Sotheby's, including the launch of Gen Art Sotheby's, a new creative art program supported by the Art Blocks Engine, aimed at integrating contemporary artworks into Web3 as NFTs.
Sotheby's also released "Themes and Variations," a comprehensive on-chain art project, and completed the first auction of the Bitcoin Ordinals collection, "BitcoinShrooms," designed by anonymous artist Shroomtoshi.
However, 2023 wasn't without challenges, as Sotheby's faced a collective lawsuit related to the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). Allegations included price manipulation through the auction of 101 Bored Ape NFTs in September 2021, which garnered $24.4 million from a single suspicious buyer believed to be FTX, the now-bankrupt exchange of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Founded in 1744, Sotheby's ventured into its first NFT auction in April 2021 for artist Pak, netting $16.8 million over three days. Since then, Sotheby's has continued to conduct numerous auctions of digital artworks, setting record sales such as the original source code for the World Wide Web ($5.4 million), NFT CryptoPunk #7523 ($11.8 million), and the 101-piece Bored Ape Yacht Club collection ($24.4 million).
Moreover, Sotheby's launched its own NFT platform, "Sotheby’s Metaverse," following the success of their NFT auctions in 2021, which collectively brought in $100 million in revenue.
