$69 Million of Pixels: Beeple and the NFT Earthquake

For thirteen years, a graphic designer called Mike Winkelmann — known online as Beeple — made and posted one new image every single day. In March 2021, all 5,000 of them were stitched into a single digital collage and sold by Christie's for $69.3 million.

It was the first purely digital, NFT-based artwork ever offered by a major auction house, paid for in cryptocurrency, and it briefly made Beeple one of the three most valuable living artists. Bidding had opened at just $100.

The sale ignited a global NFT frenzy — and, just as quickly, a crash. But for one extraordinary moment, the art world had to ask what it really means to 'own' a picture in the digital age.

Image: “Ethereum Cryptocurrency Laws & Regulations” — edwinchuen, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.