Sotheby’s EtherRock Auction Closes Wednesday, Expected to Fetch Over $600K

cryptonews.com:

Sotheby’s, the 279-year-old British auction house, is expected to close the sale of an EtherRock (EthRock) non-fungible token (NFT) on Wednesday, in a sealed bid auction.

The decentralized prediction market website Polymarket reflects that there is a 57% chance that the EtherRock NFT will sell for over $600,000 at the Sotheby’s auction. On February, 12, EtherRock number 46 sold for $496,658.

For those unfamiliar with the term ‘sealed-bid auction’ this is a type of auction in which bids are not viewed until the actual auction date and this instance Wednesday. The bids are sealed physically in an envelope, and will all be opened at once.

EtherRock NFTs are digital collectables representing ownership of virtual rocks on the Ethereum blockchain. Each EtherRock is a unique token, with ownership recorded on the blockchain, giving buyers the ability to buy, sell, and trade these digital rocks as they would physical collectables. They gained attention for their simplicity and scarcity, as only 100 EtherRocks exist, making them highly sought after by collectors in the NFT space.

In terms of total sales in 2023, Sotheby’s has achieved more than $30 million in total digital art or NFT sales, which marked about a 50% increase year on year, a spokesperson told Cryptonews.com.

“There were many highlights in our sales in 2023. Namely, we held multiple sales from the Three Arrows Capital (3AC) collection, including a dedicated live auction in June that totalled more than $11 million. The highlight of that sale was a work by Dmitri Cherniak, called The Goose, which sold for $6.2 million,” said a Sotheby’s spokesperson.

NFTs have gained huge popularity in 2021, generating over $23 billion in trading volume, reports Rachel Wolfson from