NFT artists get first significant test since the global crypto collapse

AS NFT art sales dwindle and only  handful of digital-art stars appear to be weathering the crypto storm.

The days of NFTs of JPEGs selling for $69.3 million may be over for now. Still, a handful of leading digital artists held their own during a Christie’s charity sale that tested the lasting appeal of tokenized digital art amid a recent crash in cryptocurrency crash.

Christie’s $1.6 million “Cartography of the Mind” sale exceeded the auction house’s own $1.5 million expectations, but none of its 27 NFT offerings were priced to sell for over $250,000.

The auction comes amid a market meltdown for cryptocurrencies, many of which, like Ethereum and Bitcoin, have recently plummeted to less than half of their peak values.

The Christie’s sale amounted to a who’s who of NFT artists, including Refik Anadol, Beeple, and Mad Dog Jones. They rose to global prominence amid last year’s jackpot for digital art, thanks to the advent of non-fungible tokens or NFTs and flush cryptocurrency investors.

The lower estimates in Tuesday’s sale could signify that the art market is recalibrating levels for its digital artists, dealers said. It could also show the level at which NFT artists were willing to donate pieces to a charitable cause, in this case, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.