Ever since NFTs burst authoritatively onto the mainstream scene with the monumental sale of the Beeple piece Everydays, prominent auction houses have been bustling in order to make way for the non-fungible tokens and the outsize impact they’re primed to have on society. This week, Sotheby’s announced the first auction of the 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, an incredibly successful NFT creative project that has already captured the attention of celebrities like Steph Curry and Logan Paul and investors like Chris Camillo. The most expensive NFT within the sale, 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club by Yuba Labs, is expected to sell for between $12,000,000 and $18,000,000.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club website officially launched in April, and almost immediately began drawing the attention of N.B.A. Top Shots Twitter; many prominent figures within that community had begun updating their Twitter avatars to highlight figures within the Bored Ape Yacht Club universe. This NFT-obsessed community has been growing steadily over the past few months, and as more and more people have gotten interested, modes of behavior have begun to shift.
“When everyone’s got skin in the game, it creates a new dynamic, as opposed to everyone being able to say what they want and critique everything without consequence,” Drew Austin, a technology investor, told The New Yorker recently. On the part of Sotheby’s, the auction house will be commencing bidding on September 2nd at 9am, and the NFTs will be available through September 9th. Of course, Sotheby’s will also be accepting USDC, Ether and Bitcoin cryptocurrency (Ether, Bitcoin, and USDC) as potential payment options in addition to U.S. dollars, which is an initiative the auction house began in May.
New on the Block is a series that looks at the most notable or unusual items to go up for auction each week.
