Christie’s NFT Sales Total Nearly $150 Million in 2021

British auction house Christie’s sold nearly $150 million in non-fungible tokens (NFT) this year, the group announced over Twitter. Among the sales were artworks from Beeple’s EVERYDAY series and HUMAN ONE.

The figure is indicative of how much interest there has been in the NFT space, and particularly from established companies and individuals.

The bulk of the sales come from two of Beeple’s artworks. The first was the EVERYDAYS series, which sold for $69 million in March, and the second was HUMAN ONE, which sold for $29 million in November. In total, Christie’s sold over $7 billion in artworks.

NFTs have had a tremendous year, with established auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s recording more NFT sales. The development displays the degree to which NFTs have broken into the incumbent art industry, a fact that grows by the month.

Christie’s most recently began auctioning rare NFTs with live ETH bidding, a first for auction houses. Among the more high-profile NFTs that have been sold, outside of pure monetary value, is an Andy Warhol work from the 1980s.

Auction house Sotheby’s has also had a strong 2021 with respect to NFTs. The auction house’s first sale denominated in ETH saw a Banksy artwork sold for $12 million. The Bored Ape NFT collection also collected an impressive $24 million through Sotheby’s, a month before announcing that it would launch an NFT marketplace.

Will 2022 be even better for the NFT sales?

NFTs are quickly taking over the world of art auctions. Christie’s has even launched an Art + Tech summit, which spoke of how NFTs could impact the art world. The auction house has also begun accepting crypto as payment for auctions.

Such developments forecast strong years ahead for NFTs, which have experienced both criticism and praise for what it is. With the metaverse quickly growing in popularity, the utility and sales volumes of NFTs are only expected to grow.

Numerous established companies are considering entering the metaverse, the most well-known of which is Meta. NFTs have fundamental uses in the world of gaming, which is why it is attracting so much attention. With such prospects on the horizon, the future of NFTs does look quite bright.