The amended lawsuit alleges that “Yuga colluded with fine arts broker, Defendant Sotheby’s, to run a deceptive auction.” After the sale, a Sotheby’s representative described the winning bidder during a Twitter Spaces event as a “traditional” collector, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said it turned out the auction buyer was now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, whose founder Sam Bankman-Fried is in jail awaiting trial on criminal charges. Ethereum blockchain transaction data shows that after the auction, “Sotheby’s transferred the lot of BAYC NFTs to wallet address 0xf8e0C93Fd48B4C34A4194d3AF436b13032E641F3,77 which, upon information and belief, is owned/controlled by FTX,” the complaint said. Speculation that FTX was the buyer had been percolating since at least January 2023.
So basically, they’re alleging Sotheby’s, Yuga, and FTX staged the auction to pump the price. Bold claim, curious how this will play out.
All of this NFT art is so ugly. If it was unique in a visually pleasing way—okay buy it. But to me, all of these images just look basically the same but with a new background or accessory.
Every NFT I’ve seen looks like dogshit, and crypto enthusiasts get so angry when I point it out.
I have some that I didn’t pay for and they also look fkn stoopid. Like the artists are people who just discovered how to use Photoshop last week, but never learned how to draw
Getty, the giant corporate image copywriting company, is essentially selling images with the same intent that NFTs were created for. The only difference is that once the image is sold on Getty, it’s actually sold. Finding another copy of the image is nearly impossible. The image then actually has value and most importantly, sole ownership.
I tried to find a photo I saw in a TV show and found they bought it from Getty. That photo is gone from the internet. Aquiring it would mean contacting the TV studio with the cash ready to buy the rights and use of it. They bought it for maybe $30. Buying it from them would be an astronomical price and would take a lot of work. Buying to resell would be a gamble on the shows long-term popularity.
So instead of buying an image outright, owning it forever, and having all control of it’s use, you could buy an NFT that anyone can download, claim you own it yet never be able to access the original file, and you don’t have any reasonable right to claim copyright. It’s just nonsense pump and dump bullshit.
Would I buy a pet rock? No, but that didn’t stop people from buying pet rocks.
I did the nft thing. I’m in the black. I tell people not to get into nfts… And if you do only do it for the art, not to make money. There are plenty of dead or free NFTs out there that cost you nothing.
There are some really cool small projects out there with really interesting art… However, the mainstream only sees these fugly PFPs and all of the genuinely interesting stuff is buried because crypto bros don’t pump it.
A project I find interesting is “Loot” - it has its own ecosphere - it’s a just a series of inventory lists, but it serves as a background for other projects to build on. It’s not that the art is good - it’s literally white text on a black background - but the concept is interesting. Banners, Loot Explorers, Abstract loot are 3 projects I can think ff off hand
And before anyone comes in and responds “well I could do that” - yeah you could, but you didn’t, so yeah.
NFTs as they were presented are bullshit. I think there are more problems than solutions, however, I have seen some of the coolest digital art in this space.
If you want to chat more about the art side of things, hmu. I’m not interested in talking about eth or bitcoin or cryptocurrency - but I can help you find cool interesting projects that are working to try new things other than dumb looking monkeys.
Please do not buy any NFTs. I was providing examples of things I liked. I am fully aware of how gross crypto is. I don’t do it anymore - I don’t like that I left other people holding the bag and made money.
If I knew what I know now, I wouldn’t have done what I did. I bought hype, but I also sold it.
I still thinkbthere is cool art in this space, but I don’t think anyone should engage in it beyond free things.
The amended lawsuit alleges that “Yuga colluded with fine arts broker, Defendant Sotheby’s, to run a deceptive auction.” After the sale, a Sotheby’s representative described the winning bidder during a Twitter Spaces event as a “traditional” collector, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said it turned out the auction buyer was now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, whose founder Sam Bankman-Fried is in jail awaiting trial on criminal charges.
I don’t think it’s fair to pin this all on people who got duped. Calling FTX, a company now known for throwing around large sums of stolen money to pump up the brand, bribe government officials, and fix prices, a “traditional collector”, is beyond misleading.
Yeah fuck these stupid NFT scams but fuck FTX more. They knew what they were doing. They also are alleged to have been behind the giant Bitcoin price pump of 2021
I think that’s exactly right. It was a grift, after all.
I just don’t understand how anyone could have fallen for it. Let alone people with this kind of money, who have all the information in the world at their fingertips. Is it just about them finding certain techbros charismatic? Ooh, they have money, I’d better give them my money so that I can have money too?
Well both crypto enthusiasts and art collectors are very used to the notion that an asset is as valuable as what people are willing to pay for it, regardless of intrinsic value, so I don’t find it too surprising.
Bored Ape, in particular, was tried as an attempt to bring digital art into the fine art market to use as a tax dodge. If this case goes to court I hope it’s going to shine a big bright light on the fact that a lot of the fine arts market has been a giant tax dodge scam for decades. 🤞
Not that it’s been a secret, but exposure is good.
Yep. People shit on nfts all day long for good reason, but ultimately they’re just an extension of the art world in general being a market for scams and dodgy practices.
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