Key Points
- A digital artwork titled “Ascend”, inscribed on Bitcoin’s Ordinals protocol, sold for $57,450 at Christie’s auction.
- The sale marks the first time a Bitcoin Ordinal has been featured in a live auction at Christie’s.
The digital artwork “Ascend”, inscribed on the Ordinals protocol of Bitcoin, was sold for $57,450, surpassing its low estimate of $39,000.
This artwork, created by Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell, was auctioned off at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Day sale on October 10. Initially, it was estimated to sell for around $39,222.
Historic Sale
This sale represents the first time a Bitcoin Ordinal has been featured in a live auction at Christie’s, one of the world’s oldest and most reputable auction houses.
The artwork, “Ascend”, showcases the beauty of the revitalized Iveria Sanatorium in Tskaltubo, Georgia. This structure, constructed between 1952 and 1962, had fallen into disrepair but was brought back to life through Koopmans and Wexell’s digital work.
The piece is part of Koopman and Wexell’s project “The Wild Within”, which merges visual photography with 3D technology to breathe new life into abandoned structures.
Bitcoin Ordinals vs Ethereum NFTs
Sebastian Sanchez, Manager of Digital Art Sales at Christie’s, discussed how Bitcoin Ordinals differ from NFTs on Ethereum. He explained that Ordinals present new challenges for artists due to their constraints, such as requiring smaller file sizes than what’s possible on Ethereum.
Sanchez added that Ordinals provide an extra layer of protection that external databases do not have. External servers that become inactive risk permanently deleting the image files stored within them. In contrast, Ordinals attach images and videos onto an individual Satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, without using external links.
However, Sanchez mentioned that Ordinals have a steeper learning curve in terms of technicalities compared to NFTs, making them more challenging to introduce to the mainstream art community.
Artists are increasingly experimenting with digital and physical artworks, combining the two worlds. For instance, artists have created digitally-native works where the owner has the right to receive a signed print from the artist, as well as physical works that have Certificates of Authenticity on the blockchain.
Both Wexall and Koopmans have extensive experience in the worlds of traditional fine art and photography. In September 2024, artworks from their acclaimed digital art series “The Wild Within” were installed in the former Royal Villa of Durres at the first International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Durres, Albania.
Another one of their artworks, “The Thought of You“, was inspired by an abandoned villa in Italy. The piece was showcased at the Enter Art Fair in Copenhagen, Denmark, from August 29 until September 1.