The previous whiskey cask sale record was $574,000, paid for a similar barrel in August at auction house Bonhams. That edition featured digital art from Trevor Jones, CoinDesk reports. Now, this rare whiskey cask has passed the previous record multiple times, auctioning for $2.3 million on specialty NFT marketplace Metacask.
According to Metacask’s website, it is the first NFT marketplace in the world for whisky cask trade and investments. It features default KYC/AML. By making its sale prices public, the marketplace provides transparency in the cask market.
The barrel was a 1991 Macallans scotch set
The record-setting NFT was a barrel of 1991 Macallans scotch set, which achieved the impressive amount on Metacask. The buyer has remained anonymous so far, only known under his username of oldcask. He outbid two other candidates, who were active in this type of investment. The NFT serves as a digital deed title for the cask and was created on the Ethereum blockchain.
Metacask cofounder Nim Siriwardana said the marketplace minted and auctioned the NFT to demonstrate how appealing digitally transferable rights can be. He said in a statement:
Buyers don’t need to go to a physical auction house to acquire rare and valuable real assets like whisky.
The marketplace drops cask NFTs periodically. In general, the prices range from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.
What are NFTs, actually?
An NFT, or ‘non-fungible token’ is a unique digital file that can represent things like photos or videos online. NFT ownership is stored and tracked using blockchains, the same technology that supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. They differ from cryptocurrencies in that they are unique and are not interchangeable with each other. As they are one of a kind, popular NFTs can be extremely valuable and change hands for large amounts of money.
Rising popularity, but until when?
NFT sales volumes reached $10.7 billion in Q3 of 2021, which is an eightfold increase from the second quarter, according to data by DappRadar. However, this trend might reverse itself soon. According to NFT analyst Mateen Soudgar, most NFT projects will suffer, some greatly, if the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum reach $100,000 resp. $10,000.
Soudagar has said that as many as three-fourths of NFT projects today are fraudulent. He added in a tweet:
NFT projects where people were mostly in it [to] flip will probably take a hit. And may possibly not recover. Currently, there’s a big speculator crowd around the NFT market. Many new investors will freak out when prices drop, which creates more selling.
