Buyer of $69 million Beeple NFT is a crypto investor using the pseudonym Metakovan Home News Weather Coronavirus News Entertainment Sports More > esports Money Lifestyle Shopping Health & Fitness Food & Drink Travel Autos Video Kids money You are using an older browser version. Please use a supported version for the best MSN experience. Previous Next Buyer of $69 million Beeple NFT is a crypto investor using the pseudonym Metakovan CNBC 3/12/2021 Robert Frank Metakovan's real identity is not known, but the investor is the co-founder of the NFT collection called Metapurse, which collects NFTs to display in the metaverse through virtual museums. An NFT by the artist Beeple sold at Christie’s on Thursday for over $60 million, making it the most expensive NFT ever sold at auction. The sale capped two weeks of frenzied online bidding and ushers in a new era in collectibles, where prices for blockchain-based digital images now rival prices paid for Picassos and Monets. Here's what we know about Metakoven, the buyer of record $69 million Beeple NFT CNBC See more videos SHARE SHARE TWEET SHARE EMAIL What to watch next How you can save $1 million for retirement USA TODAY How much the most populous states pay mail carriers GOBankingRates Creepy ways your company can spy on you while you work from home Veuer Major companies suspend social media advertising over online hate speech CBS News Women and retirement planning Money Talks News This bookshop survived earthquakes and recessions. But not this CNN Money Jim Cramer on Chesapeake Energy filing for bankruptcy CNBC Should you save for retirement or pay down debt? 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GOBankingRates Creepy ways your company can spy on you while you work from home Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean your boss can’t keep tabs on your every move. Veuer’s Sean Dowling has more. Veuer UP NEXT The buyer of the Beeple non-fungible token for $69 million is a crypto investor who goes by the pseudonym of Metakovan. Metakovan's real identity is not known, but the investor is the co-founder of the NFT collection called Metapurse, which collects NFTs to display in the metaverse through virtual museums. Metakovan already owns the largest collection of Beeples, and fractionalized the ownership of one collection of Beeples with a special token called the B.20 Coin. CNBC spoke with Metakovan's partner in Metapurse, who goes by the name of Twobadour, who said the NFT is "the most valuable work of its generation." Twobadour said they don't know their exact plans for this work, but options include fractionalizing it or offering it as a new token. He said the goal is not to make money, but to decentralize and democratize art so token holders everywhere can share a piece of history and share the wealth. For example, it's like if people could go to the Museum of Modern Art and actually own some of the work, he said. "We made history and we created a god" in Beeple, he said. © Provided by CNBC A detail shot from a collage The announcement only partially solves the biggest mystery behind the most dramatic transaction in the art world since Leonardo DaVinci's "Salvator Mundi" sold for $450 million in 2017. The market for NFTs — which can be any digital asset whose ownership is recorded on a blockchain — has exploded in recent weeks to over $400 million as a vast new army of young collectors pay record prices for everything from NBA highlight videos to cat memes and art. For his $69 million, Metakovan will get "essentially a long string of numbers and letters," according to Noah Davis, an art specialist at Christie's. "It's a code that exists on the Ethereum blockchain. It is a block in the chain that will be dropped into their Ethereum wallet." The buyer also gets "a gigantic JPEG," Davis said. The sale capped two weeks of frenzied online bidding and ushers in a new era in collectibles, where prices for blockchain-based digital images now rival prices paid for Picassos and Monets. While the future of NFT prices and their longer-term role in the art world remains an open question, and many see it as a speculative fad, the eight-figure price for the Beeple has caused the art world to suddenly take notice. Shortly after the auction result, Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, tweeted: "holy f---" On Thursday night, he also tweeted an image of a digitized "Mona Lisa" with the caption: "THE NEXT CHAPTER." The record-breaking work, called "The First 5,000 days" was the first ever to sell at a major auction house. In 2007, Winkelmann set out to post a new work of digital art every day for the rest of his life and hasn't missed a single day. The first 5,000 of those works, which he calls "Everydays," were compiled to form "The First 5,000 days." Beeple: We're just beginning to scratch the surface with NFTs CNBC See more videos SHARE SHARE TWEET SHARE EMAIL What to watch next How you can save $1 million for retirement USA TODAY How much the most populous states pay mail carriers GOBankingRates Creepy ways your company can spy on you while you work from home Veuer Major companies suspend social media advertising over online hate speech CBS News Women and retirement planning Money Talks News This bookshop survived earthquakes and recessions. But not this CNN Money Jim Cramer on Chesapeake Energy filing for bankruptcy CNBC Should you save for retirement or pay down debt? Money Talks News Ford just unveiled its 2021 tech-savvy pickup — here's what's new CNBC Amazon looking to get into the self-driving car business buys startup for $1B Veuer Economic outlook as more Americans file for unemployment CBS News 5 items you can sell for additional income GOBankingRates 5 practical reasons to put purchases on credit GOBankingRates How to prepare for the next recession Money Talks News Disney World workers petition to delay reopening of theme park CNBC 500 Delta staff have tested positive for COVID-19 and 10 have died Veuer Click to expand Replay Video How you can save $1 million for retirement How you can save a million bucks for retirement USA TODAY How much the most populous states pay mail carriers Americans rely on mail carriers to send and receive their mail. Have you ever wondered how much these essential workers make? GOBankingRates Creepy ways your company can spy on you while you work from home Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean your boss can’t keep tabs on your every move. Veuer’s Sean Dowling has more. Veuer UP NEXT Go to MSN Home AdChoices AdChoices AdChoices More from CNBC Here's what we know about Metakoven, the buyer of record $69 million Beeple NFT CNBC Beeple, who just sold an NFT for $69 million, talks about the other ways we can use the technology CNBC How Mark Cuban and experts say Americans should spend their stimulus check CNBC CNBC View the full site Home News Weather Coronavirus News Entertainment Sports esports Money Lifestyle Shopping Health & Fitness Food & Drink Travel Autos Video Kids © 2021 Microsoft Privacy & Cookies Terms of use About our Ads Feedback Help MSN Worldwide MSN Blog About Us Editorial Standards