{"id":871739,"date":"2025-09-09T21:12:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T02:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/09\/worlds-largest-art-auction-house-is-shutting-down-its-nft-division\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T21:12:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T02:12:52","slug":"worlds-largest-art-auction-house-is-shutting-down-its-nft-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/09\/worlds-largest-art-auction-house-is-shutting-down-its-nft-division\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s Largest Art Auction House Is Shutting Down Its NFT Division"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h2>World\u2019s Largest Art Auction House Is Shutting Down Its NFT Division<\/h2>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Christie&#8217;s shutters its digital art division, ending direct NFT auctions despite its historic $69 million sale in 2021.<\/li>\n<li>NFTs&#8217; trading metrics hang on, yet their role in the art world fades as major institutions like Christie&#8217;s withdraw support.<\/li>\n<li>The art world moves past NFTs, signaling limited future prospects despite market activity and Web3 exploration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Christie\u2019s the world\u2019s largest art auction house, its shuttering its <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/learn\/ideas-create-digital-art\/\">digital art<\/a> division, home to many NFTs. The institution hosted a $69 million NFT auction in 2021, helping kickstart the sector\u2019s fame.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Theoretically, the firm may continue selling NFTs in the \u201c21st Century Art\u201d category, but this seems unlikely. <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-the-art-world-ditches-nfts\">The Art World Ditches NFTs<\/h2>\n<p>The NFT sector <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/learn\/nfts-explainer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">took the world by storm<\/a> in 2022, but the broader Web3 sector has largely moved on. Although <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/nft-season-comeback-cryptopunks-moonbirds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">there was a brief revival<\/a> earlier this year, and the space is <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/nft-treasury-companies-experts-debate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">still exploring use cases<\/a>, this is unrelated to their purported use as an art form. Christie\u2019s, the world\u2019s largest art auction house, is shuttering all its NFT services:<\/p>\n<p><small>Sponsored<\/small><\/p>\n<p><small>Sponsored<\/small><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cChristie\u2019s has made a strategic decision to reformat <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/learn\/ideas-create-digital-art\/\">digital art<\/a> sales. The company will continue to sell <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/learn\/ideas-create-digital-art\/\">digital art<\/a> within the larger 20th and 21st Century Art category,\u201d the institution <a href=\"https:\/\/nowmedia.co\/posts\/christies-shutters-digital-art-department\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">claimed<\/a> in a statement. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This may seem like a minor development, but the art auction house is very key to NFT history. In 2021, Christie\u2019s made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christies.com\/en\/artists\/beeple?lotavailability=All&#038;sortby=relevance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">history<\/a> by selling an NFT collection for $69 million. <\/p>\n<p>This largely helped trigger the technology\u2019s rise to fame, powering the gains of 2022. Christie\u2019s even launched an on-chain auction platform as a show of confidence.<\/p>\n<p>It may be difficult to see why that confidence is gone today. Objectively, NFTs aren\u2019t performing much worse than they have been in 2023 or 2024. <span>For one, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/learn\/nft-trading\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">top NFT collections\u2019 trading volume<\/a>\u00a0increased by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coingecko.com\/en\/nft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nearly<\/a>\u00a090% in the last 24 hours<\/span>. The sector\u2019s most recent peak is smaller than in 2024, but it\u2019s not a significant drop.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.beincrypto.com\/img\/B7OWu4btbc_ocnrzIs0WgiGL1ss=\/smart\/3c94d85ad64a4b0cb148319d1cba7e8f\" alt=\"NFT Market Caps\"><figcaption>NFT Market Caps. Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coingecko.com\/en\/nft\/global-stats#nft-market-chart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CoinGecko<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"h-more-than-volumes-and-market-caps\">More Than Volumes and Market Caps<\/h2>\n<p>Unfortunately, though, stats like that are irrelevant to NFTs\u2019 place in the art world. Years ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/future-art-digital-nft-artist-bryan-brinkman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">serious artists heralded them<\/a> as an important future for <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/learn\/ideas-create-digital-art\/\">digital art<\/a>, and famous creators have <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/pepe-meme-creator-north-korea-hack-nft-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">launched their own collections<\/a> on many occasions. <\/p>\n<p>In 2025, though, this use case has apparently fallen out of favor. Simply put, the art world has moved on.<\/p>\n<p>Decisions like this are key \u201cintangibles\u201d in the market, and investors shouldn\u2019t take them lightly. Would NFTs have ever taken off if major institutions like Christie\u2019s didn\u2019t think they were legitimate art? If the exact same organizations have lost their faith in NFTs, who will keep it alive? <\/p>\n<p>This development may serve as a canary in the coal mine. The NFT sector isn\u2019t dead yet, but its oldest friends are abandoning it. Although it may linger on for quite some time, a full return to the limelight seems unlikely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Disclaimer<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In adherence to the <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/trust-project\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trust Project<\/a> guidelines, BeInCrypto is committed to unbiased, transparent reporting. This news article aims to provide accurate, timely information. However, readers are advised to verify facts independently and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content. Please note that our <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/terms-and-conditions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Terms and Conditions<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/privacy-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Privacy Policy<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/disclaimer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Disclaimers<\/a> have been updated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/christies-nft-art-auction-department-shut-down\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Landon Manning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World\u2019s Largest Art Auction House Is Shutting Down Its NFT Division Christie&#8217;s shutters its digital art division, ending direct NFT auctions despite its historic $69 million sale in 2021. NFTs&#8217; trading metrics hang on, yet their role in the art world fades as major institutions like Christie&#8217;s withdraw support. The art world moves past NFTs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":871740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1537,1329],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-871739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-largest","8":"category-worlds"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}