- Sotheby’s canceled its CryptoPunk Auction after the consignor decided to keep the collection instead.
- 0x650d, the collector who owns the NFT lot, mocked Sotheby’s after pulling out of the partnership.
- The NFT community was divided in their opinion regarding the collector’s move to “rug” Sotheby’s.
Earlier this week, Sotheby’s abruptly canceled the sale of a digital asset collection dubbed CryptoPunks after the consignor backed out of the sale minutes before the start of the event.
On February 8, a pseudonymous collector called 0x650d announced that they would be launching the “highest-profile NFT sale of all time.” The curation was in partnership with the fine arts firm Sotheby’s, and the collection was anticipated to sell for up to $30 million.
However, on the day of the sale, Sotheby’s suddenly called off the event following a delay of 25 minutes. According to Kent Charugundla, a telco investor NFT collector who attended the event, the audience who packed the auction was “extremely upset.”
When asked about what had happened, Sotheby’s spokesperson Derek Parsons (NYSE:PSN) revealed that “the lot was withdrawn prior to the sale following discussions with the consignor.”
After the auction was iced, consignor 0x650d tweeted that they “decided to hodl” the collectibles instead. The anonymous collector then followed this tweet by posting a meme making fun of the auction house.
pic.twitter.com/M0l9wvH3T5— 0x650d (@0x650d) February 24, 2022
While some users found the tweet amusing, a number of the community blasted the collector for pulling the auction away from Sotheby’s.
While the NFT community is clueless on why 0x650d decided to pull out from the partnership, it is possible that the collection’s worth did not reach its expected value. This might have been caused by the crypto price movements in the market caused by ongoing Russian-Ukraine tension.