By providing a “rotating, curated selection of leading artists hand-selected by Sotheby’s specialists,” the auction house is seeking to set itself apart from rival NFT markets, according to a statement. According to Sotheby’s Metaverse, smart contracts will be used to protect artist royalties. The platform will automatically pay artists according to the on-chain royalty rate they choose.
“Sotheby’s commitment to honoring artist royalties comes amid a larger debate about royalties within the NFT community, and demonstrates Sotheby’s artist-first philosophy as one of the only major NFT marketplaces committed to artist resale royalties,” according to the platform. Additionally, Sotheby’s plans to debut a new digital art gallery on the web3 art gallery platform Oncyber in June, featuring a number of pieces from the secondary NFT market. Cozomo de’ Medici, a digital art collector, will work with Sotheby’s to organize one of the online gallery spaces.
It comes after the NFT floor price fell and the NFT market volume dropped to its lowest level in twenty months. Only six of the top twenty NFT collections by market capitalization, according to IntoTheBlock data, saw an increase in trading volumes during this time, while the other 19 saw significant declines ranging from 20% to 99%. The trade volume for well-known collections like CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and Sewer Pass significantly decreased. However, the number of transactions on Captainz’s NFT collection and Bored Ape Yacht Club increased.