Art Market Report - January 8
A weekly report on the NFT Art Market, covering 1/1s, generative art, editions and other important news.
We enter 2024 with an increase in activities spreading across ETH, BTC, SOL, with different chains offering various features (and bugs) that enhance the unique essence of each work intended by the artists. Ordinals witness a significant rise in volumes, led by 2024 collections like ripcache’s swarm_ and 2023 ones like Harto’s The Golden Ratio. Although it's not for everyone, we expect to see more artists experimenting with Ordinals for their unique technicality and untapped liquidity. As ripcache stated on X: “Ordinals are fully on-chain, unstoppable digital artifacts on the most censorship-resistant network in the world.” On ETH, there are also more activities in the 1/1 art primary and secondary market, with larger and more diverse sales across all art genres. We are excited for the continued evolution of the world of digital art and blockchain technology in 2024.
1/1s
AI Generated Nude Portrait #7 Frame #166 by Robbie Barrat was collected on SuperRare’s secondary market for 150 ETH. It was previously sold for 80 ETH in April 2021.
system by ripcache was collected for 19.69 ETH on the secondary market. It was previously sold for 4.2 ETH in August 2022.
Timber Echoes: Dual Arrangement by Botto was collected by Cyborg DAO for 6.42 ETH on SuperRare.
{Compend-AI-M} #16 by agoria was collected for 5.5 ETH on SuperRare. The piece is part of the Biological Generative Art Series, {Compend-AI}, which explores "the immanence of the living" within computer code.
The Marionnettiste by Lucréce was collected by e22 for 5 ETH on Foundation’s secondary market. It was previously sold for 0.888 ETH in April 2021. The Marionnettiste was the first work minted by the artist that features the Monster's signature blue color.
Michele Petrelli had 3 sales on SuperRare in the past week. The damned was collected for 3 ETH, Petite lueur for 0.5 ETH, and Angelica for 0.733 ETH.
OM: Mediations of the GAN Artist by helena sarin was collected by Pablo for 4.207 ETH on SuperRare’s secondary market. The piece is part of the #prettyInGAN series, a chain of AI models trained on the artist’s charcoal and pastel paintings.
BoldLeonidas had another 3 sales on Foundation in the past week: #76 - ZachXBT Follows You was collected for 1.111 ETH, #7 - Change My Mind for 1.2 ETH, and #43 - NakamoBold for 1.69 ETH.
Pandemonkium by niftymonki was collected by CypherDAO for 3 ETH on Manifold.
KHWAMPA had 3 sales on SuperRare in the past week. Created with MS Paint, Restless Ruby, Fool's Paradise, and Hymns Galloping in the Valley were all collected by GVG for 1 ETH each.
EDITIONS & GENERATIVE ART
ripcache launched swarm_, an Ordinal collection of 1/1/64 (“64 bitcoin bot net crawlerz”) for 0.16 BTC each. A great success, it has seen 17.28 BTC volume since the launch on Jan 1, with current floor at 0.27 BTC. ripcache posted a list of ordinal features that reinforce the underlying concepts driving the art such as parent/child organizational structure, cursed inscription numbers, metadata, inscription with a human touch, randomness, and provenance of 1/1/2024. He also wrote about the story of launching swarm_ on BTC blockchain— “it was like watching a living breathing thing” where he embraced “human error, imperfections, and inefficiency to be a part of the art.”
The Golden Ratio by Harto x VIVID (collection of 420) has seen 19.41 BTC volume in the past week, with the floor jumping from 0.015 BTC to 0.2 BTC in the past 3 days. The collection marries the Fibonacci sequence with the principles of recursive algorithms and fractal geometry, with its aesthetics draw heavily on the rich history of cryptography and the bold patterns and functionalism of the Bauhaus movement.
On Jan 1, Cath Simard sold out Day 1, an edition of 222 on Exchange Art, for 3 SOL each. It has seen $114,490 volume since the release. Day 1 mirrors the metaphorical and physical journey of taking the first step into uncharted waters. Learn more about the story & inspiration here.
Big week for XCOPY edition works. Gobble (2020, edition of 15) was collected for 14.5 ETH, Rabble 23 (2020, 1/1/44) for 18 ETH, Rabble 20 for 16 ETH, and Gobshites (2019, edition of 20) for 18 ETH. The Doomed DAO also made an epic trade with XCOPY: 6 REMNANTS (1/1/250) for the Mortal Grifter, 1 of 2 originally vaulted by XCOPY himself. Learn more about the story here.
XSULLO released Blursed Skullz, an Ordinal collection of 1/1/69. It has seen 6.5 BTC volume in over a day, with current floor at 0.07 BTC. XSULLO wrote in a post: “What drew me to ordinals in 2023 was that my art can be uncensorable & immutable, trustlessly establishing the providence on-chain. Bitcoin Blockchain and ordinals gave a solid ground for my art to exist on, no use of IPFS, rather its directly inscribed on the mainnet, making art exist indefinitely…”
Tiger Lily from Alpha Centauri Kid’s Warothys collection was collected by GordonGoner for 16 ETH on the secondary market. It was previously sold for 10.5 ETH in November last year. ACK posted, “i used his ape's palette when making Tiger Lily, never thinking he would end up with it, but, the Muse conspires indeed.”
Ringers #522 was collected for 75 ETH, #711 for 75 ETH and #190 for 50 ETH.
Fidenza #2 was collected for 120 ETH, and #765 for 69.9 ETH.
A top report as always An 🖤🖤🙏