Securing Beeple’s B.20 and the NFT Revolution

Quantstamp is honored to have secured the smart contracts involved in tokenizing one of the most valuable art projects in the NFT space. 

Back in January, we participated in Metapalooza, a virtual festival celebrating metaverse art, music, culture, and—most notably—the launch of B.20, a tokenized NFT bundle by famed crypto artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple. 

Having created an incredible digital art piece every day for the last 13 years, Beeple had already amassed an enviable following of 1.7M on Instagram as of the January 23 launch date. Since then, he has attracted significant attention from even mainstream media and saw one of his digital pieces sold on the secondary market for $6.6 million. Meanwhile, the B.20 token itself has seen a meteoric rise in value, growing more than 3000% in February alone.

The stage was set back in 2020 when Metapurse—an NFT fund and production company—purchased 20 pieces of digital artwork by Beeple for 2.2 million USD via Nifty Gateway. Fractionalizing ownership was the perfect way to accomplish the Metapurse team’s original vision: “What we want to do is to decentralize and democratize art, so token holders everywhere can share in a valuable piece of history and, in the process, create wealth for the entire community.”

The B.20 token effectively decentralizes the ownership of valuable artwork that would otherwise be out of reach for many people. At Metapalooza, token holders were given the opportunity to own a share of both the NFT art and three custom VR museums. This event marked a milestone, showcasing the NFT ecosystem as high value and on par with the traditional art space. It was also a pivotal moment in the history of crypto art, kicking off a period of incredible growth and mainstream adoption. 

World-renowned DJ 3LAU, who also participated in Metapalooza, has been an avid supporter of NFTs and their ability to generate more value for artists. Historically, musicians only capture around 12% of the $40B+ industry revenue in the U.S.—NFTs have the potential to completely change this. At the end of February, 3LAU sold the world’s first tokenized album—33 NFTs for more than $11M. 

Having been described as the “new hot tech thing,” mainstream adoption seems closer than ever as more people realize the potential of NFTs to disrupt an industry and put power back in the hands of creators. Digital marketplaces such as Rarible and Zora have simplified the process for creators who may not be familiar with blockchain technology but want to mint their own NFTs. And, following in the footsteps of NFT pioneers like Beeple and 3LAU, an increasing number of artists, athletes, and entertainers have shown an interest in the growing space. At the beginning of March, Kings of Leon announced their plan to release the band’s new album as an NFT. 

Meanwhile, a collage of Beeple's pieces is currently up for auction at Christie’s until March 11, setting another milestone—this is the first time that digital work has been sold as an NFT by a major auction house. As the space continues to evolve, Quantstamp is honored to have secured the B.20 token and proud to be part of this unfolding digital revolution.

Quantstamp secures the assets of your digital nation. Read about some of the other NFT projects we’ve helped secure.