Sotheby’s Drops Sale of 104 CryptoPunks After Seller Withdraws

Auction house Sotheby’s has canceled a sale of 104 CryptoPunks after the owner withdrew. The auction would have resulted in one of the largest sales in NFT history.

American auction house Sotheby’s has canceled a sale of 104 CryptoPunks after the holder decided to withdraw from the auction. The seller, 0x650d, tweeted on Feb. 8 that he would be partnering with Sotheby’s to create the highest profile NFT sale of all time. The news made the media headlines and was expected to draw a lot of bids — but as 0x650d said, he “decided to hodl.”

Sotheby’s Metaverse Twitter page said that the decision to cancel had happened following a discussion with the owner. However, it’s hard to say what exactly went down. Perhaps 0x650d just simply did not want to sell in a last-minute switch.

Some reports are stating that there simply weren’t enough bids for the sale. All 104 CryptoPunks were being sold as a single-lot, and perhaps it was too expensive. The decision to withdraw happened after bidding was scheduled to commence, putting some chaos into the mix — and an after party continued.

Sotheby’s did not seem to make much of the withdrawal either. Rather, it has been drumming up the value of NFTs in general over the past year. Sotheby’s has been touting its NFT platform and is diving deeper into the metaverse.

NFT sales looks like they will only grow

The CryptoPunks sale might not have gone through, but the buzz around NFTs certainly does not seem to be dying. Recently, an NFT titled “Ω” was valued at 30,000 ETH, making it the highest valued NFT in history. At $80 million, it rivals that of famous physical artwork.

Content creation has become another means by which NFTs can be popularized. Russian social networking platform VK announced that it would monetize user-generated content. Such novel means of NFT integration are really pushing the niche forward, which is already past record highs in terms of sales and general exposure.

However, there have been some downsides to the explosive popularity. NFT scams are frequent, and victims can do little if they have been affected. Artists have also been protesting against and criticizing the medium for its get-rich-quick mentality.