The Person Who Made $69 Million from NFTs Four Years Ago Is Still Making Money

marsbit2025-12-09 tarihinde yayınlandı2025-12-09 tarihinde güncellendi

Özet

Four# 1st-Project This is my first project

Author: Cookie

Beeple, the man who sold one NFT for a staggering $69 million, has long been seen as a symbol of the golden age of NFTs that once was.

Although the glory of NFTs has faded, Beeple and his team have remained active in the NFT circle. At this year's Art Basel, he brought another "golden dog" to the currently quiet NFT market—Regular Animals.

Yesterday, multiple Regular Animals sold for over 10 ETH (approximately $35,000) on OpenSea, and these works were given away for free at Art Basel, with a total of 256 pieces. At this price, Beeple essentially gave away nearly ten million dollars worth of NFTs at Art Basel.

The project that Beeple and his team brought to this Art Basel is precisely Regular Animals. These are a bunch of robot dogs, as shown in the image below. They look a bit eerie because these robot dogs have human faces, and they are faces of well-known figures like Musk, Andy Warhol, Zuckerberg, Picasso, and even Beeple himself.

Of course, it's not just the eerie visual effect; these robot dogs use the cameras on their heads to observe their surroundings and employ an evolving visual algorithm to create artworks.

The celebrities these robot dogs portray were not chosen arbitrarily. The reason for selecting the aforementioned figures is that they have influenced how humans view the world, whether through algorithms, art, or politics. As humans, we observe the world through these perspectives, and so do these robot dogs. At Art Basel, these robot dogs and humans observed each other, and the moments of observation became the artworks created by these robot dogs—artworks that also serve as autobiographies for these machines.

Interestingly, Regular Animals also has a physical series, with a total of 1,024 pieces. On eBay, someone has already listed one for sale at a fixed price of $6,500. The market's valuation suggests that NFTs are far more valuable than physical paintings, reminiscent of Damien Hirst's "The Currency" series years ago, which forced owners to choose between the physical and the NFT.

Before achieving great success in the NFT field, Beeple had been creating art every day since 2007 but had never sold anything for more than $100. After achieving fame and fortune, Beeple did not splurge like some artists or crypto project teams. He acquired a studio/gallery of about 460 square meters, assembled a team of dozens of 3D artists, engineers, and researchers (even including a former Boeing engineer), invited Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the former director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, as an advisor, continuously exhibited at art shows around the globe, and created new artworks.

This exhibition of Beeple's robot dogs has not only gained attention in the crypto circle due to its price but has also been covered by traditional media like the WSJ.

İlgili Sorular

QWho is the artist that sold an NFT for $69 million four years ago?

ABeeple.

QWhat is the name of the new NFT project Beeple launched at the Art Basel exhibition?

ARegular Animals.

QHow many Regular Animals NFTs were given away for free at Art Basel, and what was their estimated total value based on secondary market sales?

A256 NFTs were given away, with an estimated total value of nearly $9 million based on sales of over 10 ETH (approx. $35,000) each.

QWhat unique feature do the Regular Animals robot dogs have that allows them to create art?

AThey use cameras in their heads to observe their surroundings and a continuously evolving visual algorithm to create artworks.

QBesides the NFT collection, how many physical pieces are in the Regular Animals series, and what was one listed price for a physical piece on eBay?

AThere are 1024 physical pieces, and one was listed for sale on eBay at a fixed price of $6,500.

İlgili Okumalar

Annual Salary of Millions Competing for Electricians, Meta Rushes to Open Its Own Technical School

The AI boom is facing an unexpected bottleneck: a severe shortage of skilled construction workers and electricians. As tech giants like Meta, OpenAI, and Alphabet race to build massive data centers—such as OpenAI's $16 billion "Stargate" project—they are hitting a critical labor wall. The U.S. needs an estimated 130,000 more electricians, 240,000 construction workers, and 150,000 supervisors by 2030 for AI infrastructure alone, but tens of thousands of electrician jobs go unfilled each year. While AI companies offer high premiums, with electricians earning up to $280,000 annually, worker scarcity still causes massive losses—delays on a single project can cost $14.2 million per month. The complexity of building AI data centers, which require immense power (equivalent to powering hundreds of thousands of homes), sophisticated electrical systems, and advanced liquid cooling solutions, demands highly skilled technicians who are in short supply. To combat this, companies are investing heavily in training. Meta has committed $115 million to a free training school offering tuition, housing, and stipends, targeting 5,000 new workers. OpenAI is partnering with unions to secure skilled labor. These efforts are paying off, with a significant rise in Gen Z interest in trade schools over college. However, the power demands are staggering. AI data centers are driving a rapid surge in electricity consumption, projected to account for up to 12% of U.S. power use by 2028 and raising costs for consumers. Furthermore, the construction boom is project-based, leading to a potential future glut of trained workers once building peaks, which could depress wages industry-wide. The race for AI supremacy now depends as much on skilled hands as on advanced chips.

marsbit32 dk önce

Annual Salary of Millions Competing for Electricians, Meta Rushes to Open Its Own Technical School

marsbit32 dk önce

OpenAI No Longer Sells Its Most Expensive Model for Profit

OpenAI is shifting its business strategy away from promoting its most expensive, flagship models for every task. Recent price cuts—80% for GPT-5.6 Luna and 20% for Terra—signal a deeper change: the company now actively advises users that many tasks don't require the most powerful model. Instead, OpenAI recommends a tiered approach: use the high-end GPT-5.6 Sol for complex planning and analysis, then delegate execution to cheaper models like Luna. This mirrors moves by Anthropic, which recently launched Claude Opus 5 at half the price of its top model, Fable 5. Both companies are de-emphasizing flagship models as primary revenue drivers, using them instead for brand prestige and technological showcases. The industry is entering a "mass-market" phase, similar to automotive, where high-volume, cost-effective models handle daily operations and drive scale. OpenAI's price reductions are partly enabled by AI models themselves optimizing underlying code and infrastructure, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of efficiency gains and cost reduction. Competition is shifting from "who is smartest" to "who offers the best value." The goal is no longer selling individual models but fostering widespread API adoption and ecosystem lock-in. By making AI calls cheap and ubiquitous, companies like OpenAI aim to become the indispensable, utility-like infrastructure powering automated workflows—the "water and electricity" of software, quietly embedded everywhere.

marsbit32 dk önce

OpenAI No Longer Sells Its Most Expensive Model for Profit

marsbit32 dk önce

Suspected 4th Coldcard attack wave sweeps 389 Bitcoin: Galaxy’s Thorn

Coldcard hardware wallet users are facing a new wave of coordinated attacks targeting a firmware flaw, with researcher Alex Thorn flagging 218 recent transactions moving approximately 389 Bitcoin from potentially impacted addresses. The attack pattern shows a high rate of transactions targeting unique victim addresses, differing from previous waves. The vulnerability, which causes affected devices to generate weaker wallet seeds, is estimated to have impacted over 1,100 wallets, leading to around $90 million in Bitcoin stolen. Thorn advises affected users who control their keys may attempt to move funds with a higher-fee transaction before the attacker's transactions are confirmed.

cointelegraph39 dk önce

Suspected 4th Coldcard attack wave sweeps 389 Bitcoin: Galaxy’s Thorn

cointelegraph39 dk önce

Bitcoin Miners Are Waving the White Flag, But Their Stocks Are Soaring

Bitcoin miners are capitulating as evidenced by a sustained drop in network hash rate and a record-steep 19.9% decline in mining difficulty, signaling the shuttering of unprofitable machines. However, in a significant divergence from historical patterns, the stocks of publicly traded mining companies have soared, with one major player gaining over 430% in the past year, even as BTC's price fell roughly 46%. This surge is largely attributed to these companies pivoting toward the more lucrative AI narrative. Simultaneously, miners face a structural squeeze. Daily block reward revenue in BTC terms has hit a new all-time low following the latest halving, with current dollar-denominated daily revenue around $30 million compared to a longer-term average of ~$40 million. Fee revenue remains negligible, covering less than one block's subsidy over a 28-day average and accounting for only about ten minutes of the network's daily security budget. This capitulation cycle is unique: miner stress and crypto price weakness have decoupled due to alternative revenue streams (AI), while the long-term reliance on increasing bitcoin prices to offset shrinking subsidies continues, with fee income still far from filling the impending gap.

marsbit42 dk önce

Bitcoin Miners Are Waving the White Flag, But Their Stocks Are Soaring

marsbit42 dk önce

Will the Fed Definitely Raise Interest Rates in September? How Will Crypto and U.S. Stocks Withstand the Pressure?

The market's expectation for a September Fed rate hike surged dramatically in early August, jumping from under 50% to over 80% within a week. This shift followed a contentious July FOMC meeting, where a 9-3 vote to hold rates revealed growing dissent from hawkish members advocating for an immediate hike to combat persistent inflation. The primary catalyst for this repricing is rising oil prices, driven by renewed geopolitical tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, which threaten global supply. Energy costs directly influence inflation metrics, making the upcoming July CPI report (due August 12th) a critical data point. If it shows inflation reaccelerating, the probability of a September hike will solidify. For Bitcoin and crypto assets, this is typically bearish news. Bitcoin continues to behave as a high-beta, liquidity-sensitive risk asset. A rate hike raises the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets and could drive capital toward money markets, pressuring crypto prices in the short term. However, historical patterns suggest that if a hike is perceived as the end of a tightening cycle rather than the start, any negative price impact may be brief. U.S. stocks, particularly crypto-linked equities like Coinbase and growth-oriented tech stocks, are also vulnerable. Higher rates increase discount rates in valuation models, putting pressure on high-multiple companies. This coincides with a pivotal tech earnings season where investor focus has shifted from massive AI capital expenditure to tangible revenue and cash flow generation. Companies with negative cash flow and weak growth narratives could face heightened volatility if borrowing costs rise in September. In summary, a September Fed hike has evolved into a mainstream market scenario. Key factors to watch are oil prices, the July CPI report, and Fed communications, which will determine the final decision and its impact on volatile crypto and equity markets.

marsbit42 dk önce

Will the Fed Definitely Raise Interest Rates in September? How Will Crypto and U.S. Stocks Withstand the Pressure?

marsbit42 dk önce

İşlemler

Spot