Buying art with bitcoin, authenticating it with blockchain – art world cottons on to cryptocurrencies
The art world sees trading art using cryptocurrencies as a way to draw in tech-savvy new collectors, and blockchain both as a way to guarantee artworks’ provenance and sellers’ ownership of them, and to raise funds from investors
What do the international art market and cryptocurrencies have in common? A love of the conceptual, a tendency to confuse with jargon and an obsession with secrecy, perhaps. Now, a growing number of businesses are combining the two, including in Asia.
Four paintings were bought with cryptocurrencies at Art Stage Singapore in January, the first time the city state’s biggest art fair had adopted a system called Aditus, which can facilitate payments in numerous virtual tender options.
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Independent galleries are also getting on the bandwagon. Singapore-based collector Joe Nash is selling some of his Australian art collection through Visionairs Gallery, which is accepting cryptocurrencies.
“I have a dual purpose. First, to give exposure to Australian art, including works by major aboriginal artists. Second, I hope that giving access to cryptocurrencies will draw in technologists who have not bought art before,” says Nash, a fintech investor who has been buying art for 12 years and cryptocurrencies for about a year.
Prices for artworks in cryptocurrencies must be reset frequently because of the currencies’ volatility – an added financial risk for artists without a regular income. From January to April this year, the price of bitcoin fell 65 per cent, and ethereum by 73 per cent.
