--- title: "Artist Sells NFT of Single Pixel for $1.7 Million" description: "A single pixel, a part of an NFT by digital artist Pak, sold for $1.36 million worth of Ether at auction house Sotheby's." date: "2021-04-16" modified: "2021-04-16" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/artist-sells-nft-single-pixel" categories: - "Blockchain" - "Cryptocurrency" - "Future Society" - "NFTs" tags: - "cryptocurrencies" - "ethereum" - "nft" - "nfts" - "the digest" --- # Artist Sells NFT of Single Pixel for $1.7 Million ![A single pixel, a part of an NFT by digital artist Pak, sold for $1.36 million worth of Ether at auction house Sotheby's.]() *\Image: Futurism\* ## The Pixel The NFT isn't dead. A single pixel, a part of an NFT by digital artist Pak, sold for $1.36 million worth of Ether, [*Reuters* reports](), at the famed auction house Sotheby's. The work was part of a larger series of digital artworks that sold for a whopping $16.8 million combined. Most notable among them was "The Pixel," which as its name suggests, was an image of a single grey block. Three bidders spent about an hour fighting over the pixel, [*The Wall Street Journal* reports](). It's an unusual sale that goes to show the NFT isn't finished yet, despite [plummeting average values]() over the last month. The trend saw a massive surge in popularity earlier this year, with some works of art selling for [as much as $69 million](), but prices have crashed by almost 70 percent as of late, according to a [recent report]() by NonFungible.com. https://twitter.com/muratpak/status/1382853560799485959 ## Cubes on Cubes Sotheby's even broke its own rules to sell an "open edition" during this week's sale, according to the *Journal*, meaning that an endless supply of a single artwork could be sold during a predetermined time slot. Almost 20,000 "Cubes" sold for $500 a piece in just 15 minutes. A different piece, called, "Equilibrium" is a simple white orb that unpeels like an onion. The artist, known as Pak, chooses to remain anonymous. It's not even clear if the moniker represents just one or multiple artists. Suiting the cryptic persona, Pak revealed that the NFTs could be "burned" as well, the act of converting the tokens into the artist's own cryptocurrency called ASH. ASH is an "NFT burning platform" that can permanently remove crypto tokens from circulation. To earn ASH, people have to "burn NFTs" by converting them on the website [burn.art](). It's an unusual art sale that is bound to appeal to cryptocurrency nerds and art nerds everywhere. "Pak is our Picasso," Philippines-based executive Colin Goltra told the *Journal*. **READ MORE:** [Digital Artist Pak Sells NFT Works for $17 Million at Sotheby’s]() \[*The Wall Street Journal*\] **More on NFTs:** *[Not Very Surprisingly, NFT Prices Are Now Crashing]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()