Bitcoin Ordinals ‘Quantum Cat’ Fetches Over $250K at Sotheby’s Auction
A digital art piece from the Quantum Cat project, featuring a Bitcoin Ordinals inscription, has been sold for more than $250,000 at Sotheby’s, the renowned auction house revealed on Monday.
The inscription titled “Genesis Cat,” created by digital artist FAR, received over 50 bids, with the winning bid amounting to 6.31 BTC, equivalent to approximately $254,000.
Taproot Wizards recently introduced the Quantum Cats collection, which comprises 3,333 Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions. The creation of this project on the Bitcoin blockchain cost over $66,000. The sale for the entire collection is scheduled for January 29.
According to Udi Wertheimer, co-founder of Taproot Wizards, the Quantum Cats collection aims to pay tribute to early Bitcoin network code called concatenate or OP_CAT. Wertheimer described “OP_CAT” as an ancient “op code” that was introduced by Satoshi in the initial release but later disabled.
Michael Bouhanna, the head of digital and contemporary art at Sotheby’s, expressed congratulations to all artists and collectors involved in the sale and extended special thanks to FAR for assisting with curation and orchestrating the auction.
In another successful auction, the Natively Digital curated Ordinals sale generated over 26 BTC, equivalent to around $1,097,000. The sale saw 641 bids, with 100% of the lots being sold. Notably, half of the items sold for prices surpassing their high estimates.
While this marks Sotheby’s first Bitcoin Ordinals-centric sale, the auction house has previously conducted numerous NFT sales on the Ethereum blockchain. Last year, Sotheby’s auctioned several NFTs previously owned by now-bankrupt Three Arrows Capital, including the Art Blocks NFT known as “The Goose,” which fetched $6.2 million.
The growing interest and demand for digital art and blockchain-based collectibles have made platforms like Sotheby’s a hub for exploring and trading these unique assets. The sale of the Bitcoin Ordinals inscription exemplifies the value and potential of digital art in the art market.