Digital art is the fastest-inflating bubble in history

Bubbles come and go faster than ever

I'm not going to weigh in on digital art NFTs. Whatever. If people want to spend $69,346,250 to have 'The first 5000 Days' from Beeple all to themselves, then congratulations to them on being unimaginably wealthy. That's what just happened.

What shocks me is that even the crazy, hyped up articles talking about the auction today at Christie's only highlighted $20m as the potential top.

What's insane is that this artwork not only blew away expectations but dwarfed the $6.6m paid for a 10 second Beeple video last week, which was also a record at the time. That's +10x in a week.

The same kinds of spikes are ongoing in sports NFTs. The WSJ this week writes about a guy who spent $175K to buy NFTs starting in September and they're now worth 20 million.

Bubbles come and go but the speed right now is breathtaking. Before most of the world even knows what's going on, the prices have gone parabolic.

Is this a feature of the digital, open-information era? Is it that money is ultra-cheap? Is it a sign of rampant speculation in everything?

I have no idea but something is happening and it's scary.

Update: Even the artist can't believe it:

US Dollar US Dollar The US dollar, (symbol $, code USD) is the fiat currency of the United States of America (USD) and the most widely traded currency globally. It was introduced into the US in the late 18th Century, with paper notes not being distributed until the following century. The US dollar, also informally known as the greenback, is the world’s most foremost reserve currency, due in large part to the importance of the US economy on the world stage. Once backed by gold (in the 1900’s), the USD is now a purel The US dollar, (symbol $, code USD) is the fiat currency of the United States of America (USD) and the most widely traded currency globally. It was introduced into the US in the late 18th Century, with paper notes not being distributed until the following century. The US dollar, also informally known as the greenback, is the world’s most foremost reserve currency, due in large part to the importance of the US economy on the world stage. Once backed by gold (in the 1900’s), the USD is now a purel Read this Term