Sotheby’s, the 279-year-old auction giant, has extended its non-fungible token (NFT) art offerings through the launch of a peer-to-peer secondary marketplace.
Sotheby’s Metaverse, its Web3 arm, now offers direct transactions between collectors on its platform. Transactions are conducted fully on-chain via the Ethereum and Polygon networks, and buyers can pay in either native token ETH or MATIC.
Sotheby’s Metaverse also plans to introduce a digital art gallery through the Oncyber metaverse platform in June, featuring different rooms curated by various artists and collectors, including the pseudonymous Cozomo De’ Medici.
The platform will continue to honor artist royalties through smart contracts on its resale platform that automatically pays artists according to their selected on-chain royalty rate.
The secondary marketplace will launch with works from 13 leading digital artists, including Tyler Hobbs, Claire Silver, XCOPY, Diana Sinclair, and Pindar van Arman, among others.
Since Sotheby’s first foray into NFTs in April 2021, the auction house has raked in more than $120 million in total NFT sales. The platform has facilitated record-breaking NFT sales, including a “Covid Alien” CryptoPunk that sold for $11.7 million, the World Wide Web source code that sold for $5.4 million, and a rare Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT that sold for $3.4 million.
