Art collector sells video clip for $6.6 million
Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile, a Miami-based art collector, sold a clip by Instagram artist Beeple for $6.6 million. Non-fungible tokens are slowly coming to dominate the art world and some sports collectibles.
Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile might hold one of the most important art collections in the world. It just happens to be all online.
A Miami-based mathematician, Rodriguez-Fraile received his MBA from Columbia University and until recently had been working a traditional investment job.
That all changed when he became interested in cryptocurrencies and started trading in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, on a blockchain platform.
Experts describe blockchain as the plumbing of cryptocurrency — in other words, the pipeline along which the money flows. Designed by Bitcoin’s mysterious inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, a blockchain is a transaction network that helps show who owns a given online asset. The blockchain guarantees authenticity and ensures that the asset or NFT cannot be erased if a server goes down. Trading an NFT is like completing a forward pass to the intended receiver: You’re the quarterback, the NFT
is the ball, and interceptions aren’t allowed.
NFTs aren’t limited to traditional artworks. Sportshighlight compilations — including some created by Miami Heat players — are also a hot commodity.
For art-collecting purposes, instead of a painting to hang on a wall or a sculpture or installation, the art comes as a digital file with a unique blockchain identifying number and, typically, no physical component. Everything else is the same, according to RodriguezFraile and others, with virtual galleries that coach artists and sell their work, and auction “houses” that sell art.
“We got close to the creators, to the artists, with development of their careers,” Rodriguez-Fraile said.
One day, the Instagram artist known as Beeple — real name Mike Winkelmann, hometown Charleston, S.C. — reached out to Rodriguez-Fraile for advice on how to sell his digital works in the cryptoworld. Beeple, 39, had been creating one new image a day for more than a decade but had no way to sell them.
“I realized this person was a superstar and was going to get very far,” Rodriguez-Fraile, 32.
He bought two works by Beeple at auction on the art-commerce site niftygateway.co. Once he realized that Beeple and crypto-art were becoming mainstream he decided to sell one of the works, a 10-second clip interpreting the aftermath of the 2020 election called “CROSSROAD.”
Gaveled price on online marketplace Nifty Gateway? $6.6 million. Rodriguez-Fraile bought it for $67,000 in October.
The price it commanded, Rodriguez-Fraile said, “Serves as a signal to the outside world that people are very, very serious about this, and it can be very valuable.”
The NFT-verse exploded amid the pandemic as the world remained homebound and screen-addicted. Hot-ticket items include art, song clips, and sports images. For instance, NBA Top Shot, a platform created in partnership with the National Basketball Association, has brokered a total of $270 million in sales, $232 million of which have come in the past 30 days, according to NFT tracker cryptoslam.io. Top Shot sells “moments,” which are video clips that are available online but are nonetheless unique to a buyer and are bought and sold like trading cards.
“Perhaps partially due [to] turbulent global events, interest and investment in virtual economies and digital assets has boomed, more than ever seen before,” write the authors of the NFT 2020 report, produced in partnership with BNP Paribas financial group. “Within the NonFungible Token ecosystem, individual sectors have seen success. Art, Gaming and Digital Assets have all gained remarkable traction.”
On Niftygateway, the buyer can decide whether to pay in the cryptocurrency Ethereum or in standard currency like U.S. dollars. And unlike traditional resales in the conventional secondary art marketplace, the artist receives 10% of any resale of a work. (In conventional resales, an artist gets nothing beyond the original price.)
“One of the most impressive things about this movement is there’s a general standard that the creators take 10% of all future sales,” RodriguezFraile said. “In this case it was given to [Beeple] as the rightful owner. This creates a beautiful relationship between creators and collectors. It’s very good for the future of the industry.”
Sales in this new virtual domain have also helped veteran Miami street artist David Anasagasti, known by his artistic moniker Ahol Sniffs Glue. Anasagasti said he has been creating moving digital images on his cellphone and posting them on social media for six years. He said he couldn’t figure out how to sell the files.
But a friend, Tik Tok and YouTube star Sam Pepper, helped him create a platform to sell the artworks on superrare.com, another commercial crypto-art site. (https://superrare.co/aholsniffsglue).
One advantage over a traditional sales platform: Anasagasti can track his pieces without sifting through reams of paperwork.
Anasagasti and Pepper say they could not be happier with the results on the superrare site, which sells exclusively in Ethereum. The proceeds go directly into the artist’s cryptowallet.
The digital works have been going for the equivalent of $3,000 to $6,000 each. Pieces are sold for a set price or can be put up for auction.
“Dude, it’s crazy. I’m really enjoying it,” Anasagasti said. “I’ve always seen a necessity to stay busy. I was making those things on a cellphone and it was from the heart. But to be able to monetize on that is great.”
Said Pepper: “His pieces have been flying off the site. We’re blown away by it.”
Anasagasti said the process is transparent — and in the end, much like selling conventionally.
“It’s like working with a gallery you trust,” he said. But, he cautioned: “Do as much research as you can. Make sure you know what you’re doing.”
Whether they’re artworks or sports cards,
NFTs derive their value from their uniqueness.
They cannot be reproduced.
NBA’s Top Shot “moments,” compilations of highlights that are already available on the Internet, derive their value from their scarcity and authenticity.
Moments can be purchased in packs starting at $9, and they are constantly sold out. Like traditional trading cards, the contents of each pack are a surprise.
Moments can also be bought individually on the NBA Top Shot marketplace. As of Tuesday afternoon, the highest-priced moment for sale on the marketplace was $250,000 for a Ja Morant dunk from Dec. 11. A LeBron James dunk recently went for $208,000 — not quite in the same league as the
1952 Mickey Mantle trading card that brought $5.2 million, but a pretty cryptopenny nonethless.