Discover the captivating story of 3AC’s second sale orchestrated by Sotheby’s, where $11 million worth of NFTs found new owners. Explore the ups and downs of the crypto hedge fund, the exciting auctions and the coup of digital artwork ‘The Goose‘ that set collectors ablaze.”
Once upon a time, Three Arrows Capital, a once-prosperous crypto hedge fund, found itself on the verge of liquidation last June. Their future looked bleak, overshadowed by the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and its stablecoin TerraUSD. However, all was not lost for 3AC, as they possessed a valuable collection of non-fungible tokens, NFTs, acquired during the crypto boom of 2021.
As crypto winter reigned, the prestigious auction house Sotheby’s stepped in to give new life to these digital treasures. It organized a series of auctions around 3AC’s NFTs, attracting the interest of sophisticated collectors and curious neophytes alike.
The other NFTs in the 3AC collection were not so lucky?
On Thursday June 15, in bustling New York City, Sotheby’s opened its doors for the long-awaited second sale of Three Arrows Capital tokens. Excitement was palpable in the air, as the auction was set to generate a staggering $10.9 million in revenue.
Among the many NFTs up for grabs, one particular gem caught everyone’s eye. Entitled “Ringers #879 (The Goose)” and created by Canadian artist Dmitri Cherniak, this digital work had already made a name for itself when it was acquired by 3AC in August 2021, for the sum of $5.9 million. This time, however, it was to reach new heights. Bidders battled fiercely until the hammer sounded, setting a final price of $6.2 million for “The Goose“.
However, not all the other NFTs in 3AC’s collection were so lucky. These tokens, on which the fund had spent $15.5 million in 2021, did not make a profit at this sale. The crypto winter had left its mark on the secondary market, considerably reducing the value of these digital treasures.
Yet, despite this reality, Michael Bouhanna, head of digital art and NFT at Sotheby’s, was delighted with the growing interest from non-crypto collectors. He enthusiastically told Reuters that more and more people now understand the quality and value of these unique products.
The frenzy of 2021 and 2022 may have subsided, but a new era of fascination was emerging, this time driven by appreciation of the works’ artistic qualities. While the NFT market had reached astronomical heights of $5.7 billion in January 2022, it now stood at $675 million last month, according to DappRadar.
Sotheby’s, for its part, brilliantly seized the opportunity to offer these digital treasures a prestigious showcase. The first sale of 3AC’s NFTs had already generated a profit of $2.5 million, and this second sale went even further into the annals of auction history.
And so ended this exciting new adventure, in which Three Arrows Capital’s NFTs found new owners thanks to Sotheby’s expertise and passion. A page had been turned, but the story of NFT and its influence on the digital art world was far from over.
