A year ago this month, prolific and often controversial artist, Damien Hirst, launched a grand NFT experiment. Through his ‘The Currency’ project, he set about examining the concept of money, both in the traditional sense and within the digital plane.
To begin with, Hirst minted his 2016 collection of 10k technicolour artworks into NFTs residing on the Ethereum network. Then, conducted a grand sale where interested parties purchased the digital artworks for $2,000 apiece. The catch however, gave owners the option to redeem the NFT for its physical counterpart, or, keep the token and see the original burned. At the time, the venerable creator hypothesized that owners would lean towards the physical component, reassured by the tangible nature of its existence.
As the clock ticks down however, the result has become too close to call. At the moment of writing, 5,305 NFTs still remain, with users redeeming at a rate of about 30 per hour, and only 8 hours left on the clock. In addition, the OpenSea floor price now sits at a healthy 6.3 ETH, with further redemptions only adding to the scarcity of the NFTs.
#TheCurrency Exhibition
HENI & @hirst_official will present a unique exhibition of paintings from #TheCurrency, at Newport Street Gallery in London, opening on 9 Sep 2022.
The exhibition will showcase all remaining physical artworks before they are ultimately destroyed🔥
— HENI (@HENI) July 26, 2022
Once the dust has settled, and owners locked into their choices, Hirst will honor his initial promise in a grandiose exhibition starting on September 9. True to his word, the master artist will host a gallery of the remaining physical artworks at his private museum in London. During proceedings, he will then cast their traditional forms into the flames, reducing them to ashes. After which, they will only exist within the depths of the impervious Ethereum blockchain, taking pride of place in the ether.
Check the final result >> Here
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*All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFT Plazas are from the personal research and experience of our site moderators and are intended as educational material only. Individuals are required to fully research any product prior to making any kind of investment.
Decentralised human, Explorer, Adventurer.
