The boom of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, that has captivated the world is now gaining traction in Saudi Arabia. Sotheby’s auction house will organize a three-day digital arts forum at the Diriyah Biennale in Riyadh from Feb. 25-27, in collaboration with the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture’s Visual Arts Commission.
The spread of NFTs in the region has been pioneered by Saudi Arabia and its UAE neighbor. A new digital art section, for example, will be included at the nSOTHEBY
ext Art Dubai expo in March, showcasing artworks from the fast increasing digital art sphere.
From the early NFTs a few years ago to the Pop Digital genre and Collectibles, the exhibition explores the recent history of NFTs, which can be informally described as a certificate that exists only once, is immutable, and cannot be interchanged.
In a statement, Sotheby’s clarified that when a collector buys an NFT, they are buying a token (or certificate) and thus the individual digital artwork or photograph associated with it.
Visitors can leave with a personalized Proof of Attendance Protocol, a digital collectible token in the form of an NFT that records their attendance on the blockchain, as well as a personalized Proof of Attendance Protocol, a digital collectible token in the form of an NFT that records their attendance on the blockchain.
The forum, like the Diriyah Biennale, which runs until March 11, intends to serve as a global platform for debate and exchange. It features a series of speeches from specialists in the fields of art, blockchain, and NFTs.
While the event is important for the growth of the Arab digital scene, it also serves to highlight the increase in NFTs over the last year. According to Statista, “approximately 23,700 NFTs were sold in the art market within the previous 30 days” as of April 12, 2021. The total number of sales recorded on the Ethereum blockchain in the last 30 days was over 35,500 as of Feb. 15 this year.
