Sotheby's Collaborates with Coinbase to Accept BTC and ETH

Sotheby’s art auction house is accepting Bitcoin and Ether as payment for physical artworks.

In collaboration with Coinbase, Sotheby’s becomes the first major fine art auction house to do this.

While Christie’s art auction house recently accepted $69M in ETH for Beeple’s “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS,” that was an NFT. Sotheby’s is taking its acceptance one step further in allowing crypto transactions for physical art.

Banksy’s iconic “Love is in the Air,” made with spray paint and oil on canvas, is set to be auctioned off on May 12. It will be the first physical artwork at Sotheby’s that can be bought with the two major cryptocurrencies.

While this is the first time the art auction house is accepting cryptocurrency for payment, Sotheby’s made their first foray into crypto in April, auctioning an NFT collection from Pak. The collection fetched $16.8M over the course of the three-day drop.