Banksy burns for NFT glory

A blockchain company has purchased Banksy artwork for $95,000 while Kings of Leon are expected to release a new album as a non-fungible token

The Banksy NFT

The blockchain company that bought the artwork for $95,000 proceeded to burn the original physical piece while broadcasting it live on Twitter.

 

This whole process of purchasing and burning the artwork was all to do with turning the mysterious artist’s artwork into a non-fungible token, NFT.

The company behind the process is called Injective Protocol. They bought the ‘Morons (White)’ (pictured) from New York’s Taglialatella Gallery and live-streamed the burning of the artwork on a Twitter account called BurntBanksy.

After burning the artwork, Injective Protocol proceeded to create a digital representation of the art through blockchain technology on the OpenSea platform.

The platform has recently spiked in popularity after Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban utilised OpenSea to issue his own NFT.

According to Injective Protocol executive, Mirza Uddin, this is the first time since a physical artwork was turned into a digital unique asset.

The whole project was executed to show that blockchain has the ability to replace physical art assets. NFTs are holding major promise with the trading volume exceeding $400million in the past 30 days, with an average of 17,000 daily active traders.

Kings of Leon joining the NFT market

With these averages over a 30 day span, it comes as no surprise that music artists are also looking at NFTs to release their original work.

Kings of Leon are expected to release their album ‘When You See Yourself’ as a non-fungible token. The world famous band will be working with tech startup Yellowheart on the project.

The rock group will be released two types of NFTs:

• Available for a limited time, serving as a deluxe version
• Six limited ones will be sold at auction – acting as a lifetime ticket to all their shows

Kings of Leon are not the first to implement these NFTs as artist and musician Grimes has already benefitted from these NFTs – selling almost $6million of visual art in an NFT auction.

NFT landscape

NFTs have increased crypto-adoption through their unique appeal to users across the world. From artwork, to music to even sports highlights, users are paying large sums of money for these digital memorablia.

The value of these NFTs have skyrocketed in recent weeks and it is considered to be the driving force behind the mainstream consumer interest in cryptocurrency. The market is still in its infancy but there is a lot of potential for this market to take off.

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