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
Fire Token Launches Presale for Tokenized Bitcoin Mining Operation in Canada
[PRESS RELEASE – Calgary, Canada, January 13th, 2025]
Fire Token has announced the launch of its presale for a tokenized Bitcoin mining operation, designed to leverage Canada’s low energy costs to optimize operational efficiency. With electricity rates as low as $0.065 per kilowatt-hour (KW/H), the project aims to create the most cost-effective Bitcoin mining operation yet.
Tokenized Access to Bitcoin Mining Rewards
Fire Token introduces a model allowing participants to access Bitcoin mining rewards without requiring personal mining equipment or technical expertise. Contributors to the presale receive Fire Tokens, representing a share in the mining operation’s output. Key features include:
- Energy Efficiency:The project uses Canada’s renewable energy resources, aiming to reduce both costs and environmental impact.
- Mining-Linked Tokenization: Fire Tokens directly reflect a portion of the Bitcoin mined, linking token holders to the mining rewards.
- Projected APY Range: The project estimates an annual percentage yield (APY) between 15% and 25%, dependent on contribution size and mining performance.
Mining Infrastructure and Operational Benefits
Fire Token’s mining operations are based in Canada, chosen for its stable energy supply, cost efficiency, and regulatory clarity regarding cryptocurrency operations. The initiative emphasizes:
- Cost Management: Utilizing one of the lowest global electricity rates to minimize operational expenses.
- Scalability and Security: The project uses robust infrastructure in Canada, known for its stable energy supply and favorable regulatory environment for crypto operations.
- Community and Transparency: Fire Token is committed to transparency with regular updates, detailed roadmap announcements, and clear reporting. Join a community focused on mutual growth and sustainable investment in the crypto ecosystem.
How to Participate:
Interested investors can join the presale by visiting presale.fire-token.ca. The presale phase is designed to be accessible, allowing contributions in BNB a popular cryptocurrency.
About Fire Token
Fire Token focuses on enhancing accessibility to Bitcoin mining rewards through tokenization, leveraging Canada’s low energy costs for sustainable and efficient mining operations. The project aims to provide a cost-effective approach to Bitcoin mining while promoting sustainability in the crypto ecosystem.
For more information, investment inquiries, or to join the community please check the links below:
Telegram: https://t.me/Firetokenecosystem
X: https://x.com/Fire_Token_Army
Website: fire-token.ca
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Cryptocurrency
Post-US Election Honeymoon Ends as Macroeconomic Data Drives Markets
Digital asset investment products saw modest inflows of $48 million last week. While nearly $1 billion flowed in during the early part of the week, outflows of $940 million in the latter half reversed much of the gains. This shift followed the release of new macroeconomic data and the Federal Reserve’s minutes, which signaled a stronger US economy and a more hawkish stance.
According to CoinShares, this could indicate that the post-US election honeymoon has ended, with macroeconomic indicators regaining their influence on asset prices.
Modest Inflows Amid Renewed Macroeconomic Concerns
The latest edition of ‘Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report’ revealed that Bitcoin attracted $214 million in inflows last week, maintaining its lead as the best-performing digital asset with $799 million in inflows year-to-date, despite also seeing the largest outflows later in the week. Inflows to short Bitcoin products stood at $1.8 million.
Ethereum, on the other hand, struggled the most, with $256 million flowing out, which CoinShares attributes to a general tech sector downturn rather than asset-specific concerns. Solana, by contrast, remained strong, pulling in $15 million in new investments.
XRP amassed significant inflows of $41 million last week, driven largely by political and legal developments. The inflows reflect growing optimism as the January 15th SEC appeal deadline approaches.
Multi-asset products followed suit with $21.1 million in inflows. Interestingly, altcoins attracted investments despite lackluster price performance. Leading the way were Aave, Stellar, and Polkadot, which recorded inflows of $2.9 million, $2.7 million, and $1.6 million, respectively. Additionally, Cardano, Litecoin, and Chainlink also saw inflows of $1.2 million, $0.7 million, and $0.4 million, respectively, during the same period.
Switzerland Tops Outflows
In terms of geography, the US stood out with $79 million in inflows, followed by Germany with $52.4 million over the past week. Canada, Brazil, and Australia also observed inflows of $37.1 million, $21.9 million, and $10.3 million, respectively.
Switzerland saw the highest outflow for the week, recording $85.3 million. A similar sentiment was seen across Hong Kong and Sweden as the two countries witnessed outflows of $36.6 million and $33.2 million, respectively.
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Cryptocurrency
Key Shiba Inu Indicator Flashes the Buy Signal: Is SHIB Ready for a Price Reversal?
TL;DR
- Despite recent market declines, SHIB’s RSI indicates an oversold condition, presenting a potential buying opportunity.
- The upcoming launch of TREAT and the negative exchange netflow also suggest potential price pump for the second-largest meme coin.
Is It Time for the Bears to Step Down?
The last 24 hours have been quite painful for the cryptocurrency market. The entire capitalization of the sector has plummeted by 5.5% and currently stands below $3.3 trillion. For their part, leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), are well in the red on a daily scale.
The popular meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) is also among the losers. Its price has fallen by 7% in the past 24 hours and, as of this writing, is worth around $0.00002023 (per CoinGecko’s data).
Contrary to the bearish landscape, one important metric suggests good days ahead for the bulls. This is Shiba Inu’s Relative Strength Index (RSI), which measures the change and speed of price movements.
The technical analysis tool varies from 0 to 100, and any ratio below 30 indicates that the asset might be oversold and undervalued. For its part, this signals a potential buying opportunity. The RSI has been hovering between 30 and 55 for the past five days, most recently dropping to as low as 29.
Additional Factors
Another element suggesting that the price of the self-proclaimed Dogecoin killer might rally in the short term is the asset’s exchange netflow. According to CryptoQuant’s data, SHIB outflows have significantly surpassed inflows in the past week.
This signals a shift from centralized platforms toward self-custody methods and could be viewed as bullish since it reduces the immediate selling pressure.
Last but not least, we will touch upon the upcoming launch of TREAT. The reward token part of Shiba Inu’s ecosystem is scheduled to go live later this week. The development could spur enthusiasm across the community, potentially leading to more people jumping on the bandwagon and a subsequent price rally for SHIB.
It is worth mentioning that TREAT’s launch has already caught the attention of some leading crypto exchanges that have announced they will allow trading services with the meme coin. Examples are KuCoin and MEXC Exchange.
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