Article: Digital art frenzy raises questions for tax, law enforcement

Article - Media, Publications

Digital art frenzy raises questions for tax, law enforcement

Caitlin Reilly, 13 April 2021

The sale last month of a digital piece of art for a near-record price raises new questions about a technology that the financial sector sees as offering great opportunity.

Christie’s auctioned the artwork for $69 million and recorded the transaction on a public blockchain as a “non-fungible token,” or NFT. The digital collage incorporating 5,000 separate digital images was created by Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, and can be seen on the auction house website. Continue reading “Article: Digital art frenzy raises questions for tax, law enforcement”

Article: Did The NFT Boom Just Burst?

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Did The NFT Boom Just Burst?

TYLER DURDEN, 03 April 2021

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are changing the way we think about art (and other collectibles), and in 2021, investors have started to take notice. As Decrypt writes, in the last year, NFTs have shot to the forefront of the crypto space. The cryptographically-unique tokens make it possible to create real-world scarcity for digital objects, and artists have seized on the opportunity presented by the technology.

“It’s not meaningful to characterize a concept as a financial bubble,” said Chris Wilmer, a University of Pittsburgh academic who co-edits a blockchain research journal. Continue reading “Article: Did The NFT Boom Just Burst?”

Article: No Surprise Here: Institutions Could Run Bitcoin’s Price Higher

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No Surprise Here: Institutions Could Run Bitcoin’s Price Higher

ETF Trends, 31 March 2021

Institutions are slowly warming to Bitcoin, which many market observers believe will lead to substantial long-term price appreciation.

Institutional investors are playing an increasingly prominent role in the Bitcoin market, and that role is likely to continue growing. For smaller investors, there are tangible benefits to this scenario. Continue reading “Article: No Surprise Here: Institutions Could Run Bitcoin’s Price Higher”

Article: NFT Market Is Like Gambling in a Casino: L’Atelier BNP Paribas CEO

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NFT Market Is Like Gambling in a Casino: L’Atelier BNP Paribas CEO

Scott Chipolina,  25 March 2021

The NFT boom has seen a lucky few make fortunes overnight—but, according to the CEO of L’Atelier BNP Paribas, buying them is akin to gambling in a casino.

“I think it’s probably akin at this stage to going into the casino,” said John Egan, CEO of L’Atelier, in an interview with BNN Bloomberg. “You know you’re going to spend money, but maybe you’re doing it for the enjoyment, for the experience. If you win, you’ve got lucky.”

BNP subsidiary L’Atelier, which focuses on identifying trends in emerging markets, released a report in 2020 which highlighted non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a key area of the emerging virtual economy. Their predictions appear to have been borne out, with the market for NFTs exploding in the second half of 2020 and early 2021. Continue reading “Article: NFT Market Is Like Gambling in a Casino: L’Atelier BNP Paribas CEO”

Article: Market Manipulation Chatter Rises as Digital Art Scene Explodes

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Market Manipulation Chatter Rises as Digital Art Scene Explodes

Brandon Kochkodin, 13 March 2021

A digital artwork by Beeple set auction records Thursday when it sold at Christie’s for a mind-bending $69 million. Twitter Inc. co-founder Jack Dorsey is auctioning the non-fungible token for the first tweet ever, “just setting up my twttr,” with the highest bid coming in at $2.5 million, so far. LeBron James highlights are fetching six figures.

If you were somehow unaware, digital assets are booming, with buyers paying up for so-called NFTs that give them exclusive ownership of electronic tchotchkes. Explanations for why, say, a GIF of a cat with a rainbow trail commands a king’s ransom aren’t hard to come by. The more prosaic theories say the price per pixel is surging as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies mint new millionaires every day and those newly rich digital natives look to spend in their adopted domain. And sure, it could be as simple as a good old mania around the latest shiny object that’s caught people’s attention.

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