Ethereum becomes a ‘first-class currency’ on Sotheby’s for Banksy auction ๐จ This article is 3 years old...
Ethereum becomes a ‘first-class currency’ on Sotheby’s for Banksy auction
In the auction house's first, Ethereum joined the ranks of USD, GBP, and EUR as a payment option.
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Updated: Nov. 25, 2021 at 2:09 pm UTC
Photo by diana.grytsku on freepik.com
For the first time ever, Ethereum was listed as a payment option on Sotheby’s price table during the auction of two Banksy paintings.
While the auction house has been accepting cryptocurrency payments since May this year, this was the first time ETH has both been listed as a first-class currency and used as payment.
Banksy’s legendary pieces put Ethereum on the map on Sotheby’s
Two legendary Banksy paintings, โTrolley Huntersโ and โLove Is In The Airโ, have been bought with Ethereum on Sotheby’s this Friday. And while major art purchases made with cryptocurrencies have long stopped being news, Banksy’s latest auction was rather unique.
This was the first time Sotheby’s, the 250-year-old British-American auction house, accepted Ethereum (ETH) as payment. The company officially began accepting payments in cryptocurrencies in May this year, but the Banksy auction was the first time ETH was used in an auction.
Sotheby’s also made history by listing ETH as an official payment method on the auction’s price table, with the cryptocurrency joining the ranks of the USD, EUR, GBP, HKD, and other fiat currencies.ย The two pieces, called “Trolley Hunters” and “Love Is In The Air”, sold for 1,696 ETH ($6,698,400) and 1,397 ETH ($8,077,200), respectively. The sale was part of the newly-conceived “The Now Evening Auction” held on November 18th, which offered 23 lots of contemporary artworks executed in the past 20 years.
Author 
Andjela Radmilac
Armed with a classical education and an eye for news, Andjela dove head deep into the crypto industry in 2018 after spending years covering politics.
