Sotheby’s Opens $15 Million Bitcoin Auction

Sotheby’s, the world’s top luxury auction house, will take an auction of a giant diamond in Bitcoin. The auction is expected to be held in Hong Kong in July 2020.

Sotheby’s will auction a 101.38 carat pear-shaped diamond, accepting both cryptocurrencies and fiat. This auction will take place on July 9, 2020 in Hong Kong.

It is projected that to have this valuable diamond, the buyer should pay an amount of around 118 million HKD – about 15 million USD. This amount also equates to over 455 Bitcoin (BTC) at a cost of $32,500 (at time of press Coinlive). This is also not the first time Sotheby’s permits using cryptocurrencies for payment as it’s also approved Ether (ETH) in prior auctions.

Sotheby’s Asia President Patti Wong sees the forthcoming auction as an “iconic moment”.

“Today’s most iconic and ancient valuable jewelry will be traded for the first time in humanity’s newest common currency,” Patti Wong said in a statement.

“Over the past year, we have seen a global appetite for jewelry and other luxury items. More and more demand is coming from a young and tech-savvy generation, many of whom are from Asia,” stated Josh Pullna, Sotheby’s Managing Director of Global Premium Clients.

Also based on Pullan, accepting payments in Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC0 a part of this “innovation commitment” of the major auction company in the world.

This year, many users bid on similar high-value items at Sotheby’s when the company announced it would enable BTC and ETH payments.

In June 2021, Sotheby’s London branch sold a CryptoPunk worth $11.8 million. The firm also announced it will begin launching the World Wide Web (WWW) source code NFT auction from June 23, 2021.

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