Beeple’s “The First 5000 Days” Sold For $69 Million At Christie’s

UPDATE: The auction has closed and it was historic. Far surpassing any other NFT auction, Beeple has helped the entire NFT world by selling for $69 million.

One of the most well-known digital artists, Beeple (Mike Winkelmann), in the world has recently launched a purely digital offering with the preeminent fine art auction house, Christie’s.

Beeple has already cemented his legacy as a founding pillar of the NFT space. His initial drop on Nifty Gateway in December of 2020 resulted in fans purchasing $1,000 “open editions” which are currently selling for more than $150,000 each, just 3 months later. He briefly held the record for the largest NFT auction after his dynamic political piece, “Crossroads”, sold for $6.6 million on the secondary market. His record was recently surpassed by 3LAU, a DJ and recording artist who has been involved with cryptocurrency since 2014 after meeting the Winklevoss twins as they were building their exchange, Gemini (Gemini has since gone on to acquire NFT marketplace, Nifty Gateway). 3LAU’s record-setting auction ended up generating $11.7 million from 33 bidders, six of whom now own lifetime all-access passes to any show that 3LAU is playing ever again.

However, that record is already in jeopardy of being broken - and yes, you guessed it, by Beeple. As is the case with most auctions, the price is typically ran up significantly higher in the closing minutes and with the current bid already up to $4 million with 3 days to go, there is a very good chance we will see history made. Factoring in the purely digital component of this auction will result in a technical title for the highest NFT sale, regardless, because 3LAU’s auction did include a physical vinyl for each of the 33 winners.