"Punk It!" was the demanding title of the live auction at which Sotheby's in New York wanted to auction a bundle of non-fungible tokens, combined as one lot: 104 "CryptoPunks" from Larva Labs were to go under the hammer on Thursday, the company's first evening auction reserved solely for NFT.
The hall was already full when the sale of the virtual goods spontaneously vanished into thin air: their owner, alias 0x650d, had withdrawn the lottery ticket.
Just why?
Ursula Scheer
Editor in the Feuilleton.
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With the crypto community baffled, the owner tweeted "never mind, decided to hodl" - which is jargon for hold at all costs, "hold on for dear life".
It's quite possible that he had an inkling of what was to come: Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent the cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ether plummeting, after which things started to pick up again.
Sotheby's did not comment on the withdrawal of the "CryptoPunks".
However, even before the NFT seller's role in Backwards, the auction house announced the continuation of two success stories involving hard goods for the spring: part two of the Macklowe Collection auction is due in New York on May 16, with big ones Names from Richter to Rothko.
And from April 29 to May 6, the third part of the Lagerfeld estate with objects and memorabilia will be up for auction in Cologne.
The last offer in the successful series of auctions "Karl" includes 550 lots, with estimates ranging from ten to 80,000 euros and focusing on a collection of early German poster art.
It is also the occasion for the first live auctions in the Sotheby's branch on the Rhine: an evening auction is scheduled for May 4th and a day auction on May 5th.