Chalk up a new milestone for cryptocurrencies.
Sotheby’s auction house has announced that it sold a rare 101-carat diamond for $12.3 million U.S., and it was purchased using cryptocurrency.
The large, pear-shaped diamond sold for a greater than expected $12.3 million U.S. after the auctioneer announced that it was accepting auction bids in either Bitcoin or Ethereum (Ether), in addition to traditional forms of payment.
Sotheby's would not disclose which of the two cryptocurrencies had been used to make the purchase but said the full amount was being paid using digital coins.
The diamond, dubbed "The Key 10138," went to an “anonymous private collector,” according to a Sotheby’s news release.
Sotheby's said the sale had attracted “new clients well beyond the traditional pool of collectors,” adding that cryptocurrency purchases appealed to a “digitally savvy generation.”
Remarkably rare, the diamond was the second largest pear-shaped diamond ever to come to market, according to Sotheby's. It was one of only 10 diamonds of its quality weighing over 100 carats ever to appear at auction.
Several auction houses have begun welcoming cryptocurrencies for big-ticket items, which have included paintings and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The blockchain-backed tokens are increasingly used to transfer ownership of digital artworks and collectibles.
Earlier this year, Sotheby's opened the sale of Banksy's “Love is in the Air” artwork to payment via Bitcoin and Ethereum. The famed artwork, which depicts a masked man throwing a bouquet of flowers like a Molotov cocktail, eventually sold for $12.9 million U.S., though the auction house did not reveal whether they buyer eventually used a cryptocurrency.
