Cryptocurrency
Sotheby’s blockchain Gen Art program shows tech taking a back seat to art

Sotheby’s is making moves. The same fine art auction house behind several recent major nonfungible token (NFT) sales has just made the Met Breuer’s old Madison Avenue building its home, and on July 26, it’s launching an on-chain Gen Art Program powered by generative art platform Art Blocks.
A sale of NFTs by early algorithmic artmaker Vera Molnár will christen the program. She worked with artist and coder Martin Grasser to produce Themes and Variations, the sale’s series of 500 unique generative artworks. Altogether, it “expresses the seamless integration of letters as pure abstract forms,” a release says, “as well as Molnár’s affinity for embracing disorder.”
“The Sotheby’s Gen Art Program is powered by Art Blocks Engine,” Art Blocks founder and CEO Erick Calderon told Cointelegraph, “which gives access to Art Blocks’ smart contracts and rendering infrastructure for partners to create their own generative projects.”

“All Gen Art Program sales will be fully on-chain and in ETH only,” Sotheby’s head of digital art and NFTs, Michael Bouhanna, told Cointelegraph. “With the integration of the Art Blocks Engine, the Gen Art Program will mark our first digital art auctions to be held exclusively in ETH. Since moving Sotheby’s metaverse to fully on-chain in May, when we announced our new secondary market, it felt like a natural progression to begin exploring more sale options that can be fully on-chain,” he added. Last week’s announcement also predated a Web3 summit at Christie’s by just days.
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Art Blocks has previously partnered with traditional art heavyweights like the New York gallery Pace. The platform connected with Sotheby’s last fall “but didn’t immediately have a project in mind,” Calderon said. “It came to light that [Art Blocks] Engine would be a perfect fit for building out their [Sotheby’s] generative art platform after they committed to working with Vera Molnár early this year.”
Sotheby’s will conduct this inaugural sale as a Dutch auction for the first time in the house’s 300-year history. Art Blocks has historically used that model across its platform. Unlike a more traditional auction, where prices start low and climb high, a Dutch auction’s prices start high and go low. The first offer wins the lot, so there’s no dramatic bidding wars here. Sotheby’s say the model introduces new psychologies. The ceiling price for works across this week’s Molnár sale is 20 Ether (ETH).

With high-profile strategic partnerships, Art Blocks has built a business strong enough to withstand NFTs’ noted volatility. Sotheby’s, meanwhile, has transformed the downfall of one of crypto’s largest institutions into huge profits. This spring, it hosted a series of sales auctioning off Three Arrows Capital’s fabled blue chip NFT collection, which smashed estimates.
Most notably, Ringers #879 “The Goose” by Dimitri Cherniak — who made his auction debut with Phillips last summer — sold for $6.2 million, despite its $3 million high estimate. Many take those estimates with justified skepticism, but Cherniak’s work proved to be the second-most expensive digital art ever sold. “Editions from the same series sold for less than $200,000 each only moments later,” Forbes pointed out.
This Spring’s financial successes showed that now’s the time to launch the Gen Art Program, Bouhanna said. “We held our first auction dedicated to generative art in April 2022, and given the strong results from that sale, it was clear that collectors could see the art historical lineage of generative art and why it is so important not only to digital art but to contemporary art.”
“The Gen Art Program will open up many new opportunities for us, namely the ability to now work directly with leading artists to present exclusive new sales,” he continued.
The initiative also expands the house’s growing Web3 presence. Specifically, this program will focus on elevating long-form generative art — large series of works from a central algorithm.
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Calderon believes respect for the medium is rapidly increasing across the art world: “Part of the reason for that is blockchain technology itself is taking a back seat to the content that’s being created […] We will see less and less talk about the technology behind generative art and more about the art itself.”
“After decades of exploring how systems and computers can generate artistic outputs, I see this collaboration with Sotheby’s and Art Blocks as a culmination of those efforts,” Molnár herself said, “providing a new way to generate never-before-seen, unique abstract forms that are defined by the controlled randomness of machine programming — the essence of the algorithm.”
Cryptocurrency
Ethereum Price Analysis: What’s Next for ETH After Surge to $1.8K Resistance?

Ethereum faced a notable increase in buying pressure, leading to a bullish rebound at the crucial $1.5K support. The price faces a decisive resistance range at $1.8K, expected to enter a short-term consolidation before breaking above it.
Technical Analysis
By Shayan
The Daily Chart
After a period of muted price action and market inactivity around the decisive $1.5K long-term support region, Ethereum eventually experienced a surge in buying pressure, triggering a bullish rebound. This wave of demand has pushed the price toward the significant $1.8K resistance zone. This area coincides with an important order block, where smart money typically places orders, reinforcing its significance.
The price action at this level is critical; a successful breakout above $1.8K would likely confirm a bullish reversal scenario, opening the path toward the $2.1K target. However, short-term consolidation around this resistance is probable before a decisive move unfolds.
The 4-Hour Chart
On the lower timeframe, ETH’s previous tight-range consolidation was broken by a notable influx of buyers, resulting in an impulsive breakout above the descending channel. This breakout was accompanied by strong bullish momentum, driving the price toward the key $1.8K resistance zone.
This region aligns with Ethereum’s prior swing lows, making it a robust supply area. As a result, short-term consolidation is expected at this level until demand or supply pressure determines the next move. A bullish breakout above $1.8K would set the $2.1K range as the next likely target for buyers.
Sentiment Analysis
By Shayan
The funding rates metric is a crucial indicator of sentiment in the futures markets. Analysing its recent behaviour provides important insights into Ethereum’s latest surge. Typically, healthy and sustainable bullish trends are accompanied by rising funding rates, signalling an influx of buyers in both the perpetual futures and spot markets.
Currently, however, funding rates are consolidating and showing no significant increase. This suggests that Ethereum’s recent price surge has primarily been driven by spot market buying rather than futures market speculation. For this bullish trend to be validated and gain persistence, the funding rates metric needs to start rising, reflecting growing confidence and aggressive buying in the futures market as well.
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Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.
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Cryptocurrency
These Altcoins Retrace the Most as Bitcoin’s Rally Was Stopped at $95K (Weekend Watch)

Bitcoin’s continuous rally that started earlier this week finally came to a halt at $96,000 as the asset failed to breach that level and has dropped by around two grand since then.
Many altcoins have produced even more painful declines over the past 24 hours, including SOL, DOGE, ADA, and SHIB.
BTC Rally Paused
It was a great week for the primary cryptocurrency. It began on Monday with a breakout from the short-term upper range boundary at $86,000 that sent BTC above $87,000. The asset continued its run on Tuesday and it finally jumped past $90,000 – for the first time since early March.
After a minor retracement, BTC kept climbing and tapped $92,000 on Wednesday. The culmination came on Friday when the bulls really stepped up on the gas pedal and sent the cryptocurrency flying to just shy of $96,000. This became its highest price in exactly two months.
The weekend has been a lot calmer, as bitcoin failed to overcome that resistance despite another attempt earlier on Sunday. As of now, though, BTC remains around two grand away from its local peak. Its market capitalization has slipped below $1.870 trillion on CG, while its dominance over the alts stands tall at 61.3%.
Alts Retrace
Most altcoins have dropped even more over the past day than BTC. In fact, only ETH and TRX are slightly in the green from the larger caps.
In contrast, some of yesterday’s top performers, such as PEPE and SHIB, have dropped by well over 5% each. ADA, SOL, DOGE, LINK, AVAX, and XRP are also in the red.
The cumulative market capitalization of all crypto assets has declined by around $40 billion since yesterday and roughly $70 billion since the Friday peak.
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Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.
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Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin (BTC) Blasts Toward $95K: Is $103K Next?

According to data from most exchanges, Bitcoin surged past $95,000 on Friday and early Sunday after a volatile ride in the past several weeks.
Up more than 11% over the last seven days and with a market cap hovering just under $1.88 trillion, BTC has social media ablaze with shouts of $100K+ price predictions, even as some seasoned voices warn retail traders to tread carefully.
$103K on the Cards
Analyst Titan of Crypto ignited the bullish case, claiming a “bull flag” breakout is underway, and predicting a short-term move to $103,000 in a post on X.
The asset’s recent price movement coincided with substantial accumulation by large investors. According to Santiment, wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC have been aggressively adding to their positions, with Bitcoin advocate Kyle Chassé calling it “THE STRONGEST SIGNAL IN THE GAME!!!”
Santiment also revealed that market sentiment has reached its most greed-dominated level since November 2024, when the flagship cryptocurrency last peaked before correcting 13%.
The analytics platform suggested whales were ready to mop up any BTC offloaded by profit-seeking retail traders in this period, potentially giving the asset a leg up past $100,000:
“If they sell here because they think we are seeing a top, whales would likely scoop up those coins and potentially push Bitcoin above $100K in the next 1-2 weeks.”
Some prominent market watchers have also highlighted key technical developments, including Daan Crypto Trades, who observed Bitcoin’s resilience at key Fibonacci levels. “$BTC Strong bounce and continuation from the .382 Fibonacci Retracement level,” he stated, expressing his fondness for “higher timeframe trends.”
Bull Cycle Incoming?
Adding to the narrative, Michaël van de Poppe suggested the market might be entering a major bull cycle. He cited a chart by TechDev_52 showing that BTC has been in its longest bear run, lasting four years, and implied a reverse cycle was imminent. “We’re about to start the biggest bull cycle ever,” the crypto investor wrote.
However, the Santiment team offered a more cautious perspective, noting that excessive crowd greed might lead to a local top formation, while more measured behavior could allow BTC to maintain its divergence from traditional markets like the S&P 500.
With its dominance holding at 61.2% and institutional interest remaining strong, the cryptocurrency’s next move could set the tone for the rest of the digital asset market in the next week.
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