The US$69.3 million (S$93 million) paid for Everydays: The First 5,000 Days using cryptocurrency, broke the record for the most money paid for digital art and the most expensive non-fungible token (NFT).

NFT is a digital object that can be a drawing, animation, piece of music, photo, or video with a certificate of authenticity created by blockchain technology. This authentication by a network of computers is considered inviolable.

The virtual object, which is actually a computer file, can be exchanged or sold with its certificate.

The object does not exist in physical form, a big difference from the paintings, sculptures, bottles of wine, or sneakers amassed by most collectors.

One of the obstacles preventing digital objects from becoming mainstream collectibles was the fear of copies. NFTs can still be copied, of course, but only one file has a certificate of authenticity, which cannot be replicated.

The First 5,000 Days is a mosaic of 5,000 individual images that American digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, has posted online since 2007.

The result of the auction made Beeple, who is little known in the mainstream art world, one of the three most valuable living artists, alongside David Hockney and Jeff Koons.

The buyer of Beeple's NFT, Metakovan, paid Christie's auction house using ether, the world's second-biggest cryptocurrency. The majority of NFTs are built on the ethereum blockchain, which has ether as its cryptocurrency.

BUSINESS TIMES, NYTIMES