Bitcoin Art 'Genesis Cat' Fetches $254K at Sotheby's Auction

• Bitcoin Blockchain-based Digital Art Genesis Cat Fetches $254,000 in Sotheby's Auction
• Auction Exceeds Expectations
• Ordinals Curated Sale
• Ordinals Inscriptions: The Bitcoin Version of NFTs
• About the Artist
• Genesis Cat: A Part of Quantum Cats Series

Bitcoin Blockchain-based Digital Art Genesis Cat Fetches $254,000 in Sotheby's Auction

Genesis Cat, a unique digital art piece minted on the Bitcoin$42,260 -0.64% blockchain's Ordinals protocol by team Taproot Wizards, garnered a whopping $254,000 at a recent Sotheby's auction. The exclusive 1-of-1 artwork, created by Taproot Wizards artist Francisco FAR Alarcon, was highlighted in a larger Sotheby's sale of Ordinals inscriptions.

Auction Exceeds Expectations

The auction, which began on January 12 and concluded on the subsequent Monday, fetched a sale price for Genesis Cat that was over twelve times the anticipated $15,000 to $20,000 lot estimate. This follows on the heels of Sotheby's selling three pixelated images from the BitcoinShrooms collection last month for a total of $450,000.

Ordinals Curated Sale

The sale took place as part of the Ordinals Curated Sale, which comprised 19 lots from a diverse group of 11 artists. Collectively, they raked in approximately $1.1 million, as reported by Sotheby's spokesman Derek Parsons to CoinDesk. In particular, Lot 17 from the auction, Black Rare Sat 20,159,999,999,999, netted $165,100, setting a record for a Rare Satoshi, renowned for their unique attributes that make them more desirable.

Ordinals Inscriptions: The Bitcoin Version of NFTs

The impressive figures fetched by these Ordinals inscriptions - often dubbed NFTs on Bitcoin - have drawn parallels to the NFT craze which swept the Ethereum$2,315 -2.42% blockchain a few years ago. However, these transactions have led to traffic congestion on the Bitcoin blockchain and have faced backlash from purists who prefer the world's largest blockchain's bandwidth be reserved for financial transactions.

About the Artist

According to Sotheby's auction lot description for the Genesis Cat image, creator Alarcon is an artist and engineer exploring the intersection of visual arts and technology. His work encompasses an in-depth exploration of the material history of computer-generated graphics, focusing on their impact on our understanding of the physical world as experienced through film, video games, and virtual realms.

Genesis Cat: A Part of Quantum Cats Series

The Genesis Cat artwork was the flagship piece in a series of 3,333 Quantum Cats minted by Taproot Wizards. This was the team's first sale since their Ordinals NFTs on Bitcoin project amassed $7.5 million from investors last year. Designed as a tribute to a Bitcoin improvement proposal named OP_CAT, the Quantum Cats collection was announced in a press release from Taproot Wizards.

Dan Held, chief marketing officer for Taproot Wizards, informed CoinDesk that the final price for Genesis Cat is the sum that will be reimbursed to the project, including the artist, one of the co-founders. Furthermore, the fee charged by Sotheby's is added to the winning bid price.

Edited by Jonathan Stoker