Christie’s Scales Back on NFTs as Art Market Faces Decline

UK auction giant Christie’s is reportedly closing its department that handles non-fungible token sales, putting it under a broader department amid a global decline in the art market.

The “strategic decision” will see the 258-year-old British auction house continue to sell digital art such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but now within the larger 20th and 21st-century art category, according to a report on Monday from Now Media that cited a statement from a Christie’s spokesperson.

At the same time, Now Media reported the auction giant laid off two employees, including its vice president of digital art, but at least one digital art specialist will be kept on staff.

Christie’s has had a huge presence in the NFT space, selling multiple artworks, including Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days, which closed at auction in March 2021 with a bid of $69.3 million.

The auction house had also been a supporter of the Web3 space, launching an NFT auction platform in September 2022 and a crypto-only real estate team in July.

Market conditions could have spurred shift 

Fanny Lakoubay, a digital art adviser, curator and collector, said in an X post on Monday that she suspects Christie’s move could be tied to the “current art market contraction.”

The wider art market has been declining, with global sales down 12% in 2024 to $57 billion, along with combined public and private sales by auction houses dropping by 20% to $23 billion, according to the Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2025 released in April.

“Auction houses can’t justify a whole department when it brings in less revenue than the others, even with some recent successful sales,” Lakoubay said.

“It’s definitely not a great public signal, but we should also remember: auction houses only focus on secondary sales of already well-known artists and brands. It’s still too early for that model to really work/scale with digital art,” she added. 

Lakoubay said it could be a good time to focus on primary market development and introduce traditional collectors to new digital artists.

Christie’s could be having a “Kodak moment”

Meanwhile, an NFT collector and member of the Doomed decentralized autonomous organization, posting under the handle Benji, argued that Christie’s move to close its digital art department doesn’t reflect a weakness in the demand for digital art, or that “institutions are no longer coming for our jpegs.”

He speculates the business model is likely to blame for the decision because it was “flawed and unsustainable,” and this new direction could be Christie’s “Kodak moment.”

“How can you charge 25-30% commission on something that does not need to be authenticated / stored / insured / shipped, when your online competitors like Gondi charge zero commission for the exact same sale?” Benji said.

“I hate to see good people lose their jobs, but Christie’s exiting the space is a net positive— one less value extractor means more value for collectors and artists alike.”

Christie’s didn’t immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

NFT market records mixed results

The NFT market has had a turbulent few years. Last year was flagged as the market’s worst year for trading volume and sales since 2020, partly because of volatility and rising token prices.

Related: NFT market cap drops by $1.2B as Ether rally loses steam

It has been showing signs of life in 2025. In August, the sector surged to a market capitalization of more than $9.3 billion, a 40% uptick from July, as Ethereum-based collections and Ether (ETH) increased in price.

The market has shown signs of cooling in recent weeks, but its current market capitalization is up 2% in the last 24 hours and sits at $5.97 billion. 

Several of the largest NFT collections by market capitalization have also experienced gains. CryptoPunks is up 1.9% in the last 24 hours, and has a trading volume of $208,319 with three sales.

Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club is up 3.7% and has clocked a trading volume of more than $1.2 million and 30 sales, while Pudgy Penguins is up 2%, with $905,526 in trading volume and 20 sales. 

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