Damien Hirst—the British artist known for his preserved shark piece, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living—has said he’s now taking BitcoinBitcoin and EthereumEthereum as payment for a new run of prints.
“For the first time, I’m accepting Cryptocurrency for payment,” he wrote on Instagram. “It’s hard for any of us to trust anything in this life but somehow we manage it and we even find love and I love art and I love the crypto world and I am happy and proud to put my belief into Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) and accept them for this drop.”
And though you can pay for them in crypto, these pieces are very much not “crypto art”—the eight prints represent different takes on cherry blossoms, inspired by the eight virtues of bushidō, the samurai code. They cost $3,000 a pop, and they’re only on sale until March 3.
I've made eight cherry blossom prints called The Virtues with @HENIGroup. For the first time I'm accepting Cryptocurrency for payment! You can buy them via the link below. Available until 23:59 PST Wednesday 3rd March. https://t.co/Jcn6z78Y54
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living put Hirst on the map in the 90s, and though he’s been producing less important work over the years, his art remains polarizing as ever; a 2017 exhibition in Venice was met with both raves and pans.
The big story at the proverbial “intersection of art and technology” over the past few months has beenNFTs (non-fungible tokens): cryptographically secured assets that can put any sort of digital art on the Ethereum blockchainblockchain. According to a report from the blockchain analytics firm NonFungible, the market grew by 2800% last year.
Earlier today, musician and visual artist (and girlfriend to billionaire Elon Musk) Grimes sold a collection of NFTs for over $6 million.
Musician and visual artist Grimes has sold a collection of NFTs for over $6 million.
NFTs are non-fungible tokens—cryptographically secured collectables that can be anything, but that have become a popular (and lucrative) medium for visual art. You buy them with Ethereum through Ebay-esque marketplaces like Zora, Foundation, and NiftyGateway.
The NFT art market has exploded within the last year. According to a report from Nonfungible.com, the market grew by 2,800% in 2020 and is now valued at n...
And while NFTs are typically online images and animations, physical artworks can come with NFT components too. In October, Christie’s sold a Bitcoin-themed piece with an accompanying NFT for $131,000.
For now, though, Hirst’s prints remain off-chain.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Minutes after President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, the CEOs of the world’s two largest stablecoin issuers laid out their plans for complying with the landmark legislation, with each making the case that their own company is better suited to America’s new regulatory landscape.
Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the world’s top stablecoin issuer, told Decrypt Friday his company intends to make sure USDT—its flagship dollar-pegged token—complies with the GENIUS Act’s regime for foreign...
Charles Schwab would like to issue its own stablecoin, its CEO Rick Wurster told analysts in an earnings call Friday, adding the firm to a growing list of traditional finance giants exploring the tokens as the U.S. prepares to enshrine stablecoin regulation into law.
"Stablecoins are likely to play a role in transacting on blockchains and that's something we do want to be able to offer,” Wurster said.
The executive's comment on offering a dollar-pegged token comes as Schwab aims to deepen its...
Bitcoin treasury giant Strategy has always been coy about naming its BTC custodians. But people outside the firm do know who they are.
For starters, Strategy has repeatedly cited its “various custody arrangements”—there is no one exclusive custodian that’s holding onto its nearly $72 billion worth of BTC on the company’s behalf. A spokesperson for Coinbase confirmed it is one of Strategy's custodians when asked by Decrypt—but stressed that MSTR has previously named Coinbase as one of its custodi...