Sotheby's to Auction 'First NFT Ever Minted'

The auction will feature an NFT by Kevin McCoy minted in May 2014.

AccessTimeIconMay 6, 2021 at 10:48 p.m. UTC
Updated May 9, 2023 at 3:19 a.m. UTC
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Sotheby’s, established in 1744 in London, is launching its second non-fungible token (NFT) auction.

  • In an announcement Thursday, Sotheby’s said the curated auction from June 3-10 will feature “the first NFT ever minted” – Kevin McCoy’s “Quantum.”
  • “Universally regarded as the first NFT ever created, Quantum is timestamped 05-03-2014 09:27:34,” Sotheby’s wrote in its announcement.
  • Some regard the Bitcoin-based “Colored Coins” as the first NFT.
  • The other two works in the Sotheby’s auction are a rare CryptoPunk from 2017 and Anna Ridler’s “The Shell Record” from 2021.  
  • Bidding will begin at $100 and a portion of the funds raised from the sale will go to the Sevens Foundation, a non-profit supporting digital artists. 
  • Given that Beeple fetched $69 million in ETH at a Christie’s auction in March, some are expecting lofty returns:
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