US$92 million broke the NFT transaction record. Pak's "Merge" turned out to be popular art?
2021 is a year when the NFT market will usher in explosive development. Some NFT projects that are at the top of the pyramid and have sold for sky-high prices have repeatedly refreshed our understanding. The most famous of these is Beeple's Everydays: The First 5000 Days, which fetched $69.34 million at Christie's.
At the end of the year, an NFT work with an auction price of nearly 92 million US dollars once again attracted our attention.
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What "ball" is so expensive?
Pak's art project "Merge" is also very unique in the auction method. Unlike previous auctions, "Merge" is not sold in the form of a single or a group of works, but an "unlimited sale". Participants need to purchase tokens called "mass". Anyone can choose to buy any number of "mass" during the auction period from March 1st through December 4th, and the price of each "mass" will gradually increase from $299 to $575 over time. According to statistics, a total of 312,686 "mass" were sold in this auction, 28,983 buyers participated in the purchase, and the sales volume was US$91,806,519.
In appearance, "mass" is a small ball. The size of the ball is determined by the quantity purchased. Each wallet can only have one ball. When buying a second ball, the two balls will be combined into one , the color and volume also change. "Annexation" will continue to occur with the secondary market transactions, and the number of existing balls will become smaller and smaller.
The largest ball currently available is a ball containing 12120 "mass". Through the interaction (changing hands) of collectors, the final appearance of the entire work will continue to change. It is not so much a picture, but rather an interactive art written on a smart contract.
Visual artist Emre Tanırgan made avisualization toolsecondary title
Controversial mysterious NFT artist
The anonymous encryption artist Pak is no stranger to friends in the circle. In September of this year, Pak's Lost Poets series of NFTs sold a total of 55,000 in China, with a single price of 0.32 ETH, raising funds of $70 million. In April this year, Sotheby's and Nifty Gateway jointly auctioned Pak's work, which sold 14,882 cubes in 15 minutes. The quotations of the two single products, The Switch and The Pixel, both exceeded US$1 million, and the total auction price of the work was US$17 million. (See:After watching the artist Pak sold $15 million cube NFT, I said "know how to play"）
In contrast, Beeple's NFT painting "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" consists of artwork that has been created continuously for 5000 days. The 13 years of hard work have made the high price even more reasonable.
Pak is controversial in the NFT circle. Some netizens jokingly said that Pak seems to be not only an encryption artist, but also an economist and marketing expert, a master of hype and concepts. He sold pure red pixels for 30 ETH, sold white paper for $70 million (Lost Poets series), and sold cubes for $17 million. This "Merge" is also a continuation of the previous gameplay.
"Every time Pak's so-called innovation is how to make more money with the least amount of work, it seems that it is still extremely accurate," netizens commented.
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Let high-priced NFT go to the public
However, some netizens also praised Pak. If the auction of Beeple's works is just a game for a few rich and collectors, then Pak is the real experimenter of art democracy. The art trade should not and should not always be a game for the elite.
In this auction, nearly 30,000 collectors bought Pak's works, and the price of a single "mass" is also a price that most ordinary people can afford. Just like Banksy chose the street graffiti art form closest to the public, it is also because "art is the common property of the public, not limited to specific people." Pak makes it more possible for NFT to land in the art field, allowing collectors from more classes and different backgrounds to join the encrypted art market.
Michael Finley, former director of Christie's auction house, wrote in his new book "The Value of Art: Money, Society, and Beauty" that the values of money, society, and beauty in works of art are intertwined, especially money, society, and beauty. society to talk about purely aesthetic value.
What do you think of this sky-high auction?
