Beeple and MakersPlace also said they understood that the crash dashed the hopes of fans who had expected to make purchases.
Beeple saw a spike in the value of his Crossroad NFT when it was resold for $6.6 million to an anonymous buyer and crashed MakersPlace. MakersPlace, a crypto art boutique, experienced the crash on Thursday due to the traffic for Beeple’s limited edition art.
MakersPlace updated the public on why the website was down in a tweet. The boutique explained that their website traffic had surpassed its estimations.
Update on the $1 @beeple drop.
We deeply apologize for the experience today, the amount of traffic and site actions far exceeded our estimations and like a domino the site went down and stayed down. In the end only a small number of artworks were purchased, we are finalizing.
— MakersPlace (@makersplaceco) February 28, 2021
Mike Winklemann, also known as Beeple, broke his previous record of $1.5 million with this recent sale. Currently, the Crossroad project is the artist’s most expensive sale and his first 1/1, which means it is unique. The previous record of Beeple’s NFT project’s sale was by a user named ‘CryptoPunk 6965,’ who paid 800 ETH. As of last week, the purchase was worth $1.55 million.
The Crossroad shows Donald Trump naked, unconscious, and covered in graffiti of derogatory words on a verge of grass beside a pedestrian walkway. On the other hand, the NFT’s code would have changed into a ripped version of Trump putting on a crown. Trump would have walked victoriously amidst flames of celebration on the new code, if he had won the elections.
When the artwork dropped in November, it sold for $66,666.60 to Pablo, an NFT collector. Now, the repurchase has brought Pablo a hundredfold return on his first investment.
MakersPlace Crash Foiled Another Beeple Sale
Beeple also has a collage titled EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, a collection of images he has created for 5,000 days over the last 13 years. The collage is minted into an NFT that is exclusive to Christie’s auction house, making the auction house the first to sell an NFT and accept crypto payments. The EVERYDAYS piece contains themes like Desire and Resentment of Wealth and Turbulent Political Scenes in America. The piece pulled bids of up to $1 million within ten minutes of the sale.
A specialist in post-war and contemporary art, Noah Davies, who is also leading the sale, explained that his organization is happy to make about $3.5 million. He stated that the world is experiencing a period where varieties thrill younger art collectors. However, it could be a generational, demographic, or drastic shift.
Beeple was releasing the EVERYDAYS work in another launch titled The 5000 Day Selects. The new release features 333 images which sell for one dollar a piece. There are high hopes for the artwork, which will also be limited to 105 pieces on the blockchain. Unfortunately, the MakersPlace crash caused people who hoped to purchase the limited edition to get a “504 Gateway Time-out” error message. After a few hours, MakersPlace revealed that they only sold a small number of artworks in the end.
Beeple and MakersPlace said they understood that the crash dashed the hopes of fans who had expected to make purchases. They then announced that they would sell the remaining editions of The 5000 Day Selects via a raffle draw. The tweet further explained that those who qualify for the raffle are collectors who show up early. Eligible buyers must also have verified MakersPlace accounts.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
