Christie's Launches Its Own On-Chain NFT Auction Platform

English auction house Christie's launched Christie's 3.0, an on-chain NFT auction platform on Ethereum.

Christie's Launches Its Own On-Chain NFT Auction Platform
Phases NFTs for sale on Christie's 3.0

English auction house Christie's launched Christie's 3.0, an on-chain NFT auction platform on Ethereum. Christie's is one of the largest art auction houses in the world, and last year it famously auctioned NFT artist Beeple's Everydays: The First 5,000 Days for $69.3 million.

The Christie's 3.0 auction platform records all transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, and Ethereum is the only currency accepted at Christie's 3.0 in exchange for NFTs. Christie's curates the art offered on the platform, and all bidders are required to go through a KYC process.

According to Nicole Sales Giles, Christie’s director of digital art sales, “By incorporating regulatory tools, such as anti-money laundering and sales tax, we have built an inclusive solution where both veteran and new NFT collectors can feel secure in transacting with Christie’s 3.0.” I'd also assume Christie's doesn't want your sanctioned Tornado Cash ETH–clean ETH only, please.

Christie's 3.0 is launching with a single collection of 9 NFTs: Diana Sinclair's Phases. Last year, Sinclair got famous for her NFT artwork The Digital Diaspora and for creating the music video for an unreleased Whitney Houston track that was sold as an NFT for $1M.

Although I think Christie's is a bit lame, Sinclair's Phases is pretty cool. The collection includes a mix of JPEGs and videos. Some of the JPEGs come with physical prints of the NFTs. Others do cool stuff. “River Over Stone” uses DALL-E to change over time, representing how our memories lose detail. Sinclair's generative video, “Ego,” gets 10 seconds longer every month for 9 months, but the added video time is removed when the video is transferred to a new wallet.

Bidding on Phases is open through October 11, then other collections are expected to launch on Christie’s 3.0 soon.