The long-established auction house Sotheby’s announced on the 15th that it will offer a cryptocurrency payment option for its diamond auction in Hong Kong. The auction named Diamonds: The Dazzling ∞, will include the iconic diamond necklace by Harry Winston.
The diamond necklace from the luxury jewelry brand will be on display at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on September 24th.
The winning bid is estimated to be between HK$36 million to HKS$46 million (around US$4.63 million to US$6 million). The auction will also accept payments in the form of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and US Dollar Stablecoin USD Coin (USDC).
This is not the first time Sotheby’s is accepting crypto payments for its diamond auction. In July, a 101-carat diamond was auctioned for a whopping HK$95.1 million (around US$12.3 million) to an anonymous buyer who paid via cryptocurrencies.
Explaining the characteristics of the diamond necklace, Sotheby’s wrote:
“Weighing a total of 177.51 carats and designed as a cascade of diamonds, the necklace is made of nine graduated pear-shaped stones at the front, all D colour and Internally Flawless, each meticulously selected to match the standard of quality that is paramount to the brand.”
While the cases of crypto payments for gemstones are still pretty rare, the auction houses are actively carrying out NFT sales in cryptocurrencies.
On the 9th, the popular NFT project “Bored Ape Yacht Club” (BAYC) series “101 Bored Ape Yacht Club” won a bid for a total of $2.3 million.
Sotheby’s first held an NFT auction in early March. The work “First 5000 days” by popular digital artist Beeple was sold for a record high of $69.4 million at that time.