Nifty Gateway Sets New Record for Digital Art Sale

On July 23, 2020 Nifty Gateway closed an online auction for a 1/1 edition of Picasso’s Bull by Trevor Jones at $55,555, shattering all previous records for the sale of a piece of digital art in the form of a non-fungible token (nifty).

The sale of Picasso’s Bull is an important milestone in validating to the art world and to the general public what we already know to be true: a new medium in art has been established and is evolving before our very eyes.

We started Nifty Gateway in 2018 because we recognized the potential for ERC-721 non-fungible tokens. First with Cryptokitties, and soon thereafter with a growing variety of digital art, we saw a passionate community of crypto enthusiasts and devout collectors develop and grow in parallel. And, we understood why. We realized very quickly that blockchain had the power to fundamentally change digital art, a medium that before was effortlessly reproducible and therefore in many ways, valueless.

But, by creating unique, identifiable, and secure digital art on the Ethereum blockchain, Nifites solved that problem by giving provenance to digital art – and with provenance, comes value. An exact replica of the Mona Lisa, brush stroke for brush stroke, is beautiful to look at on your wall, but ultimately worthless. The actual Mona Lisa, the painting in the Louvre, that we know without any doubt was created by the hand of Leonardo Da Vinci, is priceless. With the provenance that comes from being uniquely identifiable on-blockchain, you can now know without a shadow of a doubt that your specific piece of digital art was created by the hand of the artist – and that provenance cannot be copied or forged. Maybe it too will one day be priceless!

Since our launch we have attracted many of the most respected artists of our generation to the Nifty Marketplace: Cey Adams, Kenny Scharf, Jon Burgerman, and of course, Trevor Jones – just to name a few. We have held 13 successful drops, almost all of which have sold out in minutes, and those nifties have almost all increased in value and seen active trading on the secondary market. We are just getting started.

In the coming months we plan to continue to frequently drop new collections of digital art with some of the most prominent and exciting artists in the world, bringing more and more unique and beautiful art into your life. We are working on a display app and hardware technology, so you can proudly display your digital art in your home or office. And, we will continue to build out the Nifty Marketplace itself, adding more intuitive features and functionality so that you can continue to have a simple, elegant, and secure experience when buying, selling, viewing, and storing your digital art on our platform.

The Nifty ecosystem is flourishing. We invite you to explore this exciting new medium with us.

Onward and Upward,

Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster

The Nifty Marketplace is an all-in-one platform where you can buy, sell, and store your digital art and collectibles. Learn more about nifties here. Sign up here to get notified when new drops go live, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter to stay current on all things nifty.