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‘The Currency’, NFT Project By Damien Hirst, Garners $25 Million

‘The Currency’, the peculiar NFT project headed by artist Damien Hirst, has already collected more than $25 million in sales within two months.

In July, Damien Hirst had launched his NFT initiative which was to sell more than 10,000 hybrid print-NFTs. However, unlike most other NFT works, his project came with an interesting clause. The buyers were given a choice: they could either keep the physical print of the works or the NFT digital copy. If they chose the former, they would relinquish all rights to the non-fungible token of the work. If they chose the latter, the physical work would be destroyed.

At the time, many called this a marketing gimmick to make the news. However, within 2 months of its launch, the project has made spectacular sales. Hirst himself took to social media to announce that ‘The Currency’ has made $25 million in sales. Soon, HENI Analytics (associated with the company that partnered with Hirst on the project) posted concrete numbers on its social media handles.

Data posted by HENI Analytics

Since the start, 1,571 works have been sold, totaling $26,345,475 in sales. The most expensive one was ‘Yes’, a prominent artwork by Hirst that sold for more than $120,000. The initial bid for the artworks was $2000, but actual sales numbers have far exceeded that limit. Currently, works from ‘The Currency’ have a base price of 8.8 ETH, or more than $28,000. Usually, 10-15 artworks are sold each day, but the numbers could fluctuate significantly. For instance, on August 14, a whopping 249 works were sold.

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Some speculate that the aim of ‘The Currency’ was to gauge if there is a bigger market for physical artworks or cheaper NFT alternatives. The choice for NFTs can also be explained by the ease of buying and selling them. For instance, ‘A Way Of Life’ has frequently exchanged hands since its initial sale, garnering profits for each of its buyers.