Christies Closes NFT Department Amid Market Slowdown

The move also comes with layoffs, including its vice president of digital art, though Christie’s will still sell ￰0￱ decision was made after a period of high-profile involvement in Web3, including Beeple’s $69.3 million sale in 2021 and the launch of a dedicated NFT platform in ￰1￱ suggest the restructuring is a result of declining art sales and the challenges of scaling NFT secondary ￰2￱ the same time, NFT marketplace OpenSea announced a $1 million reserve to acquire “culturally relevant” NFTs, starting with CryptoPunk #5273. The reserve was created to highlight NFTs that left a lasting impact on the digital art ￰3￱ Closes NFT Division Christie’s, the 258-year-old British auction house, is reportedly closing its dedicated non-fungible token (NFT) department, consolidating it under its broader 20th and 21st-century art ￰4￱ firm will continue to sell digital artworks, including NFTs, but the restructuring is certainly a reflection of shifting market ￰5￱ to a report from Now Media, the move comes alongside layoffs, including the departure of Christie’s vice president of digital art, though at least one digital art specialist will stay on ￰6￱ decision is a big moment for Christie’s, which played an important role in bringing NFTs into mainstream ￰7￱ auction house famously sold Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days for $69.3 million in March of ￰8￱ sale defined the NFT boom.

Christie’s later expanded its Web3 presence by launching a dedicated NFT auction platform in September of 2022 and even unveiled a crypto-only real estate team in 2023. However, the latest restructuring suggests the enthusiasm for these initiatives cooled due to industry ￰9￱ market data supports the rationale for Christie’s ￰10￱ Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2025 revealed that global art sales dropped 12% in 2024 to $57 billion, while combined public and private auction house sales fell 20% to $23 billion.) Digital art adviser and collector Fanny Lakoubay suggested that auction houses cannot justify separate departments when revenues trail behind other categories, despite occasional headline-making NFT ￰11￱ also said that the secondary sales model has not yet scaled effectively for digital art, and argued it may be more fruitful to invest in primary markets and help traditional collectors discover emerging digital ￰12￱ everyone sees the consolidation as a setback for ￰13￱ NFT collector posting under the handle Benji described Christie’s decision as potentially its “Kodak moment,” and argued that the auction house’s business model of charging 25-30% commissions on digital assets requiring no authentication, storage, or shipping was unsustainable in the face of competitors offering zero-commission ￰14￱ suggested that Christie’s departure could ultimately benefit the ecosystem by reducing value extraction and allowing more proceeds to flow directly to artists and ￰15￱ NFT market itself has been volatile, In fact, last year was its weakest for trading volume and sales since ￰16￱ Unveils $1M NFT Reserve Meanwhile, NFT marketplace OpenSea announced the creation of a $1 million reserve dedicated to acquiring what it calls “culturally relevant” non-fungible ￰17￱ initiative was launched with the purchase of CryptoPunk #5273, one of the highly regarded profile picture NFTs from Ethereum’s first collection of its ￰18￱ to OpenSea’s chief marketing officer Adam Hollander, the reserve was created to highlight NFTs that left a lasting impact on the digital art world, whether through creative influence, social significance, or technological ￰19￱ selection process for future acquisitions will be handled by a team of OpenSea employees and external digital art ￰20￱ Flagship Collection announcement On-chain data shows CryptoPunk #5273 was purchased on Aug. 25 for 65 Ether, worth roughly $283,000 at the time, and later transferred to another ￰21￱ CryptoPunks collection was created in 2017 by Larva Labs, and currently holds a market cap of around $2.1 ￰22￱ the idea of strategic reserves is common with fungible tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, OpenSea’s is a rare step into NFT reserves, which carry bigger risks due to lower liquidity and difficulties in selling during market ￰23￱ said that this is not a one-off campaign but rather a “living collection” that will grow over time as the NFT sector ￰24￱ NFT volumes () The announcement comes at a time of mixed fortunes for ￰25￱ from CryptoSlam shows sales rebounded to between $115 million and $170 million in July and August, but activity slowed in early September, with weekly sales slipping to $92 million.

Meanwhile, several companies, including Bybit, Kraken, and GameStop, have shut down their NFT marketplaces due to declining trading volumes.