Christie’s Closes Digital Art Department as NFT Market Stays Frozen

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By Sam Reynolds , AI Boost | Edited by Parikshit Mishra Sep 12, 2025, 4:23 a.m. Christie's Art + Tech Summit at Hong Kong Fintech Week in 2024 (Chris Lam/CoinDesk) What to know : Christie’s has closed its digital art department, ending its experiment with NFTs in art sales. Two staff members were let go, but specialist Sebastian Sanchez remains in New York. NFT trading volume has dropped 45% last quarter, highlighting the market's instability. Christie’s has shuttered its digital art department, ending a short-lived but influential experiment that saw Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have a place alongside paintings, sculptures, and other works in the auction house’s art sales, according to a report from Now Media . Two staffers were let go at the end of August, including vice president of digital art Nicole Sales Giles, while specialist Sebastian Sanchez will remain in New York. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . Giles played a prominent role in Christie's Art+Tech Summit in Hong Kong last year, which ran alongside Hong Kong Fintech Week. (Chris Lam/CoinDesk) Giles had been a prominent face of Christie’s digital push, notably at the Art+Tech Summit in Hong Kong last year, which ran alongside Hong Kong Fintech Week. There she argued that Christie’s brought the same valuation discipline to NFTs as it did to paintings or sculptures, but with one critical difference. "What’s unique with digital art is the community engagement aspect, which absolutely comes into play in a way it never has with traditional art,” she said at the time. Others at the summit acknowledged that the category was still far from mature. “I do not think at this very moment we have a very standardized understanding of [digital art’s] value,” said Angelle Siyang-Le, director of Art Basel Hong Kong last year. “That’s why you do see a lot of it all of a sudden coming out, and then obviously created that excitement. That excitement created that awareness. And now from here to the next phase … how do we align such standards of values?” A year later, the numbers show how fragile that foundation was. NFT trading volume fell 45% last quarter to $867 million, even as sales counts rose 78% to 12.5 million, according to DappRadar . Floor prices for blue chip NFT collections have slipped well below their peak levels: CryptoPunks trade around 46.6 ETH ($210,000) , Bored Apes hover at 9.1 ETH ($41,000) , and Moonbirds sit at 2.8 ETH ($12,600) . By contrast, Ethereum itself has rallied 76% in the past three months to $4,509, outpacing the NFT market. On X, some observers argued that Christie’s decision reflects simple economics rather than capitulation, noting that NFTs are increasingly being absorbed into mainstream contemporary sales rather than treated as a separate “collectible” category. This retreat by Christie’s hints that without firmer valuations and clearer standards, NFTs risk remaining an add-on to contemporary art rather than sustaining a market of their own. NFT Christie's AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards . For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy . More For You Crypto Pundits Retain Bullish Bitcoin Outlook as Fed Rate Cut Hopes Clash With Stagflation Fears By Omkar Godbole | Edited by Parikshit Mishra 47 minutes ago crypto experts maintain bullish outlook on bitcoin, focusing on impending Fed rate cuts and long-term structural bull run. 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