Auction Giant Christie’s to Change Course on Digital Collectibles

Christie’s, one of the world’s most recognized auction houses, is adjusting its approach to digital art. Reports suggest the company will no longer operate a dedicated NFT department, but digital works will still find a place on the auction floor under a broader modern art category.

Good to Know

• Christie’s sold Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days for $69.3 million in 2021, a landmark NFT sale.
• The auction house launched a crypto-only real estate team in 2022 to explore Web3 opportunities.
• The NFT market recorded its weakest year since 2020, with falling volumes and trading activity.

The restructuring means that Christie’s digital art will be grouped with 20th and 21st-century works, according to a statement cited by Now Media. While the company confirmed the shift, it emphasized that NFTs will still be offered to collectors who want them.

As part of the change, the auction giant reportedly laid off two staff members, including its vice president of digital art. However, one specialist will remain to oversee future digital auctions, showing that Christie’s hasn’t walked away from the space entirely.

Christie’s role in NFTs cannot be understated. Back in March 2021, it made headlines when Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days hammered for $69.3 million, marking one of the earliest signs of mainstream acceptance for digital collectibles.

The house later introduced its own NFT platform in September 2022, designed to support artists and creators experimenting in Web3. Just this year, Christie’s announced a crypto-only real estate team, a move that showed its willingness to push beyond traditional auctions into blockchain-driven markets.

The wider NFT ecosystem has cooled considerably since its explosive growth during 2021 and early 2022. Last year was marked as the weakest since 2020 in terms of trading volume and total sales, partly due to token price swings and investor caution.

Christie’s restructuring reflects this broader slowdown, even though interest in digital ownership and blockchain-based collectibles continues to exist in pockets of the art world. The company seems intent on keeping NFTs available to collectors but within a more measured and integrated framework.

For collectors, the change could simply mean that NFTs are treated less as a niche experiment and more as part of the overall contemporary art landscape — where Christie’s has long been a dominant player.