According to Cointelegraph: Venerable British-American auction house, Sotheby's, reported near $35 million in digital art sales in 2023, making it one of its most exciting years in digital art to date, according to the company's Vice President and Head of Digital Art, Michael Bouhanna.
In a year that saw the company host its first live digital art auction with 300 attendees and $12 million in sales, the highlight was "Ringers #879", a non-fungible token (NFT) art piece by digital artist Dmitri Cherniak that sold for a record $6.2 million. In total, Sotheby's conducted over 25 digital art exclusive or inclusive auctions and launched its NFT secondary trading platform, "Sotheby's Metaverse."
Bouhanna hinted at a direction for the company in the coming year, involving "supporting creators and enhancing their primary market strategies." Details of these plans are still to be provided.
Sotheby's, founded 279 years ago, entered the NFT space in April 2021 with the auctioning of a work by pseudonymous digital artist Pak. Its recent record-breaking sales reflect the resurgence of the NFT market amid a Bitcoin bull run, with total trade volume nearing $1 billion in November alone. The average value of NFT transactions also rose by 114%, indicating a growing willingness among users to engage in higher-value trades.