Last November, the artist Beeple held a US election night party complete with a hot dog-eating contest, screens displaying his impish political images and actors wearing uncanny rubber masks of political and tech leaders such as Kim Jong Un, Elon Musk and, of course, the two major parties’ presidential candidates—Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. The South Carolina-based digital artist famously became the third-most-expensive living artist at auction in 2021, when Christie’s sold his NFT (non-fungible token) Everyday: The First 5,000 Days for $69.3m. With that, Beeple was crowned the face of the crypto community’s efforts to disrupt the art market, introducing new types of transactions, artists and behaviour.
Much has changed since those halcyon days. “The NFT market is the least ambiguous picture you could possibly show in a PowerPoint,” says Amy Whitaker, an associate professor of visual arts administration at New York…
