An auction of NFTs that could reach $30 million is canceled: the sale was expected to push the market

Photo: NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images

The auction of a batch of 104 NFTs from the Cryptopunks collection that was expected to sell for more than $30 million had to be canceled this Wednesday after the owner of the pieces decided to cancel at the last minute.

The situation forced Sotheby’s, one of the most important auction houses in the world, to have to delay the event and subsequently have to cancel it. After this the owner of the NFTs posted a meme on Twitter mocking the auction house.

Derek Parsons, a representative of the auction house, told the New York Times that the batch of NFTs had to be removed minutes before the auction began due to “discussions with the consignor.” The Sotheby’s spokesman preferred not to go into details about what was the reason for the discussion with the owner of the works, or if they will be put up for sale again in the future.

Art experts such as Todd Levin, who has worked with Sotheby’s, suggest that although this type of situation can occur, it is not something that is very common in the auction of pieces of this style.

Add that when What happens, in general terms, is because there is a fear that the prices reached during the auction will not be the ones expected by the sellers..

“Withdrawal is really the absolute last option. Auction houses go to great lengths to select these sales in advance,” reported the New York Times.

According to a previous statement released by Sotheby’s, all 104 Cryptopunks are owned by a user identified only as 0x650dwhich purchased the parts in a single transaction for an undisclosed amount.

Michael Bouhanna, co-director of digital art at Sotheby’s, had described the sale of these NFTs as a “monumental occasion” because in his opinion the Cryptopunks are one of the most representative and recognizable works of digital art in the world of non-digital tokens. expendable.

“Forget it, I decided to hodl”, published the owner of the NFTs in one of his tweets in reference to his decision not to sell the pieces.

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