24 Hours of Art: January 7, 2025

Currency Inflation

Death by chance by Damien Hirst

'The Currency' by Damien Hirst sees a surge of 30 sales for 41.41 ETH, nearly doubling collection list to 1.8 ETH. SmallCapScience collects 5.

The collection was launched in 2021 and gave collectors 1 calendar year to decide whether to retain their digital original or burn it in exchange for a physical. The end result was nearly split, with 5,149 of the 10k being burned. All original outputs can be viewed here.

What sparked the surge? The answer may be Bryan Brinkman, after his tweet "Nobody wants to hear it but this is probably the best long term art investment play atm" went viral.

Early Eko

The pre-cursor to Eko33's 'Latent Ink' collection sees a big secondary sale.

'Terra Incognita 01' by Eko33 sells for 7.5 ETH to roses via SuperRare.

Described as a merger of "hand-coded algorithms and AI aesthetics", the artwork is the second (following 00) of ultimately twenty-six 1/1 outputs minted to SuperRare beginning in September, 2023.

Collection: Highlights

Synthetic Dreams by Refik Anadol

  • 'Synthetic Dreams' /1k by Refik Anadol: 9 sales for 11.52 ETH, list: 1.49 ETH
  • 'CENTS' /10k by Rutherford Chang | Sovrn: 24 sales for 0.216 BTC, list: 0.0097 BTC
  • 'Terraforms' /9,911 by Mathcastles: 5 sales for 5.07 ETH, list: 0.78 ETH

1/1: Highlights

GAME OVER by ALIENQUEEN

1/1/X: Highlights

Winds of Yawanawa #85 by Refik Anadol

Edition: Highlights

Legacy by Batz

  • Primary (Rodeo) - 'Legacy' by Batz mints 25.6k editions
  • 'SAINT_LESS (Waves)' /200 (NFTBoxes) by XCOPY: 1.6 ETH to NFTButler_ weirdo
  • 'QQL Mint Pass' /678 by Tyler Hobbs x Dandelion Wist Mané: 1.1 WETH to KREGdao
  • 'BANG_BANG' /249 by XCOPY: 0.9 & 0.9 ETH
  • 'OBLIVION' /425 by XCOPY: 0.755 WETH
  • 'MAX PAIN' /4,924 by XCOPY: 0.601 WETH to Morty_flipnftbot
  • 'all things fail' /333 (The Memes by 6529) by die with the most likes: 0.33 ETH to spritey.eth
  • 'Déjà Vu' /329 by Mad Dog Jones: $1,110 to bluecow

RD Report

For those who have been around the digital art marketplace ecosystem for a minute, take a step back. The "open edition meta", as it's been called before, continues to return at lower and lower costs. The 2020-21 Nifty Gateway era saw big numbers in the thousands of dollars (per edition). The 2022 Manifold era saw big numbers in the tens and hundreds of dollars. Is this the 2024-25 Rodeo era? This time around it is in the cents.

What does it all mean? That's something I'm still considering, but what I can say: if an artist leans into the heat, Jeremy Booth and Batz (today) are good examples of sound logic. There is no competition between the choices they are making on Rodeo and off of it. In fact, the choices they are making feel additive.

I hope it goes without saying that any artist is free to behave in any way he or she sees fit, but past metas have been fraught and distributed meaningful lessons when given enough time to settle. History exists to learn from.

Lastly, who knew Bryan Brinkman was such a KOL? ;)

Today Reported:
Sales thresholds of (USD) $10k+ Collection, $1k+ 1/1, $3k+ 1/1/X, and $1k+ Edition artworks

Under threshold but notable to me is a flurry in 'Fragments of an Infinite Field' /1,024 by Monica Rizzolli (her Art Blocks collection). It has been prone to bursts of activity over the past month or so.

2025 Subscriber Corner

The fifth ART of the year is in with a framework of PUNKS Comic nostalgia to encapsulate the Lost Robbie, Hackatao, and XCOPY Grifter events.

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