The Person Who Took The World’s Most Expensive NFT From Justin Sun’s Hands Owns an NFT Fund

Justin Sun was on the verge of scoring a $69 million ad stunt and was literally seconds away from being the winner of an auction for the world’s most expensive NFT token… But things didn’t turn out the way he expected.

The sale of EVERYDAYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS at Christie’s auction house made history as the company’s first auction of an electronic product, the world’s most expensive NFT token, and the third most expensive piece ever sold by a living artist.

Justin Sun *Almost* Wins the Auction

The bids quickly reached 7 figures. Justin Sun did not miss the opportunity and offered 69 million for the piece on its last day of the auction —$60 million for the artist and $9 million for Christie’s. The offer had no contender. As the deadline approached, everything seemed to point to the same man who paid $4.5 million for a dinner with Warren Buffet as the new owner of the expensive NFT.

But at the last minute -literally- a mysterious bidder snatched the illusion from Justin Sun’s fingers, offering $250,000 more.

Justin Sun did his best to beat him to the punch. He said in a tweet that in the last 30 seconds he placed a bid of $70 million… But Christie’s didn’t process it. Justin Sun lost the race and the NFT sold for $69.3 Million.

Sun didn’t miss the opportunity to promote his blockchain, offering Christie’s the chance to develop a platform on the TRON blockchain to prevent these mishaps from happening.

11/12 So, @ChristiesInc, if you need my assistance in incorporating blockchain technology to your system, let me know! Happy to help 🙂

— Justin Sun🌞 (@justinsuntron) March 12, 2021

But who won the auction?

The winner remained anonymous for a while. In the face of the silence, some media speculated that it was indeed Justin Sun who had won the auction, and so it seemed until he denied the claims.

Christie’s later confirmed that the auction was won by the investor with the pseudonym Metakovan.

.@ChristiesInc is honored to announce that @Metakovan, the founder and financer of @Metapurse, the largest NFT fund in the world, was the winning bidder of @beeple’s THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, for $69.3 m (42329.453 ETH). Read more here: https://t.co/h2gE6nS1Gu

— Christie’s (@ChristiesInc) March 12, 2021

Who Paid $69 Million For Beeple’s NFT, And The Most Important Question: Why?

The winner, Metakovan, has been in the NFT ecosystem for some time. Metakovan founded and developed the NFT fund Metapurse which makes them no less than the mastermind behind one of the world’s largest NFT investment funds.

Metakovan did not issue comments on their personal accounts, but the Metapurse team confirmed the news.

Beeple’s Magnum Opus: It was us. https://t.co/fsz5L6Rokw

— Metapurse.eth (@metapurse) March 12, 2021

Metakovan’s fund invests significant amounts of money in unique tokens in the same way an investor buys baseball collectibles, or an art merchant invests millions in rare pieces.

The idea of revaluation is a strong incentive for investment from a business standpoint. As an example, Cryptopunks were one of the first experiments with NFTs, and although they had no economic value at the time, today they are valued at several million dollars.

However, Beeple assures that digital art, like physical art, has a unique value due to its connection with the person who owns the artwork.

He also explained that the world is just “scratching the surface” in terms of use cases for this revolutionary technology. In an interview with CNBC, he explained that beyond art, NFTs could be used in the future to prove ownership of goods, certify diplomas, sell concert tickets, etc.

So perhaps investing 69 million dollars for a piece of artwork is not that crazy. If a family sold a Basquiat portrait for $110 million after buying it for 20 grand, maybe in the future —when everything is digitalized— a Beepl could have the same destiny.