Bitcoin Ordinals NFT: the first individual poem sold at auction by Sotheby’s

The poem “Cord” by Ana Maria Caballero was presented in an online auction of Bitcoin Ordinals NFT from the Natively Digital collection, by Sotheby’s. The first individual poem at the auction was sold for 0.28 BTC or $11,430.

Bitcoin Ordinals NFT: the first poem sold at Sotheby’s auction for 0.28 BTC

The famous auction house Sotheby’s has managed to sell its first individual poem through a Bitcoin Ordinal NFT. 

“#AuctionUpdate: ‘Cord’ by @CaballeroAnaMa reaches 11,430 dollars (0.28 BTC). In addition to the digital piece, the collector of ‘Cord’ will also receive a signed print of the poem.”

This is “Cord”, the poem by Ana Maria Caballero, presented at the online auction of Bitcoin Ordinal Inscriptions, in the collection Natively Digital. This collection is conceived as a deep dive into the world of NFT-type Ordinals on Bitcoin and contains the first notable inscriptions.

And in fact, among the other artists present in the Natively Digital auction are FAR, XCPinata, Nullish, Rudxane, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Popoki, Shroomtoshi, Des Lucréce, and Claudia Hart. An artwork from the “Quantum Cats” collection was sold for over 250,000 dollars.

Anyway, the first poem about Bitcoin Ordinal NFT on Sotheby’s was sold at auction for 0.28 BTC or $11,430. In addition to the inscription, the buyer of “Cord” will also receive a signed print of the poem.

Bitcoin Ordinals NFT: Sotheby’s auctions the first individual poem

This sale marks the first individual poem ever sold by the 280-year-old auction house Sotheby’s, excluding manuscripts and books. Highlighting the event is Michael Bouhanna, Vice President and Head of Digital Art at Sotheby’s:

“Congratulations to Ana, whose work is incredibly well received! The first poem ever sold @Sothebys”

The author of the poem, Caballero, has also commented on the sale of her poem in Bitcoin Ordinal NFT format, as follows:

“It is an incredible opportunity to affirm that words, language, and poetry have value on their own. Not with any other thing attached, not with images, not with sounds, not with any other type of experience. Only the language of poetry, only the text, has been sold.”

“Cord” is written in a style of poetry called villanella. A villanella is a poem of 19 verses and five stanzas and uses two repeated rhymes and two lines used multiple times.

Caballero is no stranger to the NFT world. In 2021, Caballero, along with Kalen Iwamoto and Sasha Stiles, launched the digital poetry and NFT gallery theVerseverse. 

Over 58 million registrations in the first year of life

At the time of writing, according to the data from Dune Analytics, Bitcoin Ordinals NFTs have surpassed 58 million inscriptions.

A number that represents 6.5 times more than the total of 9 million reached in May 2023, which is 8 months ago.

The phenomenon therefore seems to be growing, considering that this month marks its first year of existence. And indeed, it was January 2023, when Ordinal Protocol had launched NFTs on the Bitcoin mainnet, dividing the crypto community between supporters and opponents.

Even the ORDI token has been a protagonist, with the price increasing up to $85.90 on January 3, 2024. At the time of writing, however, ORDI seems to have downsized to $56, still remaining up 119% compared to last year.