YouTube/Christie's
- Beeple watched the last minutes of the auction for his digital art in his family room.
- The piece, titled "Everydays: The First 5000 Days," sold for about $69 million.
- With the sale, he said "digital art is here to stay."
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, gathered with family in his living room to watch as dozens of bidders took part in the auction for his crypto art.
The auction closed with a final bid of over $69 million – making him the third most valuable living artist in the world.
He jumped off the couch, and said "I'm going to Disney World!"
Read more: Here are 4 NFT startups transforming the way we buy art and sports memorabilia
In the auction's final 30 minutes, the price for his unique digital art jumped from $15 million to $69 million. Tron founder Justin Sun was the runner-up but was outbid at the last minute, a spokesperson for Sun told Insider.
As he watched the last moments play out, Beeple said, "I think it probably means digital art is here to stay."
The transaction was the historic auction house Christie's first-ever sale of an NFT. An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a digital asset that operates as a type of collector's item and can't be duplicated.
Beeple's piece, titled "Everydays: The First 5000 Days," was the highest-valued crypto art sale yet. The second highest was another Beeple piece, which sold for $6.6 million in February.
Christie's
Beeple has previously said he hasn't valued his art at more than $1,000. But now his pieces are leading the crypto-art boom as digital tokens continue to gain in popularity and grow in market size amid the pandemic and larger cryptocurrency boom.
