‘Bitcoin NFT’ Hysteria Comes to Sotheby’s as Super-Mario-Style Mushroom Character Tops $200K

The
first-ever
sale
by
Sotheby’s
of
“inscriptions”
created
using
the
Bitcoin
blockchain’s
Ordinals
protocol
–
from
a
pixelated
collection
known
as
“BitcoinShrooms”
–
drew
about
$450,000,
or
five
times
the
highest
estimates,
potentially
revealing
a
mainstream
fervor
for
the
tradable
digital
images
colloquially
referred
to
as
“NFTs
on
Bitcoin.”

The
auction,
which
concluded
on
Wednesday,
consisted
of
three
of
the
images,
including
a
pixelated
avocado
that
fetched
more
than
$100,000
and
a
design
that
appears
to
be
derived
from
a

mushroom
in
the
Super
Mario
franchise
that
sold
for
north
of
$240,000,
according
to
Derek
Parsons,
a
spokesman
for
the
auction
house.
There
were
148
total
bids
across
the
three
lots,
and
more
than
two-thirds
of
all
bidders
were
new
to
Sotheby’s.

There
are
“plans
for
more
soon,”
Parsons
wrote
in
an
email.

The
results
recall
the
mania
that
swept
digital-asset
markets
a
couple
years
ago
when
digital
artwork
and
non-fungible
tokens
or
“NFTs”
first
started
drawing
eye-popping
sums,
and

captured
mainstream
attention;
one
NFT
by
the
artist
Beeple
drew
$69
million
at
the
auction
house
Christie’s.
Many
of
those
collections,
however,
were
built
atop
the
Ethereum
blockchain.

The
Ordinals
inscriptions,
which
debuted
late
last
year
featuring
a
new
technology
pioneered
by

Casey
Rodarmor
atop
Bitcoin
have
witnessed
bouts
of
popularity
this
year
sufficient
to
cause
congestion
and
elevated
fees
on
the
distributed
network,
launched
in
2009
to
be
a
peer-to-peer
payments
network.

There’s
a

debate
raging
among
Bitcoin
users
and
developers
over
whether
to
filter
out
transactions
in
NFT-like
“inscriptions”
minted
using
the
Ordinals
project,
since
they’re
not
a
core
financial
use
in
keeping
with
many
advocates’
vision
for
the
original
blockchain.

So
the
idea
that
some
of
the
images
might
be
considered
high
art
could
tip
the
scales
of
the
debate
toward
profit
interests.

The
three
digital
images
come
from
the

BitcoinShrooms
collection
of
Ordinals
inscriptions,
by
the
pseudonymous
artist

Shroomtoshi,
according
to
the
Sotheby’s

website.

The
digital
avocado,
known
as
“BIP39
SEED,”
was
initially
tipped
to
draw
$20,000
to
$30,000,
but
it
ended
up
selling
for
$101,600.