Beeple Says NFT Art Is 'Absolutely' In A Bubble After Making $69M In Such A Sale

Artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, said Sunday that non-fungible token art is in a bubble. 

What Happened: Winkelmann made his comments to “Fox News Sunday,” where he said that NFT art was “absolutely” in a bubble, Bloomberg reported.

“I absolutely think it’s a bubble, to be quite honest. I go back to the analogy of the beginning of the internet. There was a bubble. And the bubble burst,” said the artist.

See also: What is a Non-Fungible Token (NFT)?

Beeple noted that, just as the internet was not wiped out post the bursting of that bubble, if the NFT technology itself is “strong enough” then it would outlive a similar burst.

Why It Matters: Winkelmann sold an NFT piece titled “The First 5000 Days” for $69 million this month in a Christie’s auction.

The art was purchased by Vignesh Sundaresan, an Indian-origin software engineer.

On the sale, Winkelmann said, “By Friday night, the guy — it’s a guy in Singapore — he had the artwork and I had the money,” — adding, “$55 million in my bank account. Like, boom, done, the next day."

The sale was made in Ethereum ETH/USD. The cryptocurrency traded 0.52% lower at $1,784.36 at press time.

The digital artist offered $69 million to Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk for an NFT song on NFTs but the latter changed his mind on making the sale.

Other artists who have capitalized on the trend include Musk’s partner Grimes, Lindsay Lohan, and Banksy who sold a piece for $394,000.

The NFT craze is akin to the Tulip Mania that swept Holland in its golden age, according to some.