# A bunch of NFTs with illustrations of monkeys were just sold for $24 million
Adapted from https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/9/22664469
After the eruption of decentralized options for transferring wealth and value, starting with cryptocurrencies in 2010, many businesses realized they could adapt those schemes and through advertising among the regular public create massive profits.
One of such schemes are non fungible tokens or NFTs, a concept of tying ownership of copyrighted works to digital tokens on a peer-to-peer blockchain that can then be exchanged freely, though with limitations. This enabled artists to produce virtual collectible items as virtual tokens in a cheap way, since those tokens have no value outside of being collectable in a way that only a single person owns them at a time. The caveat of ownership changes is usually that the initial NFT creator will receive a portion of every amount paid in a transaction with the said NFT.
In recent years many artists hopped on the crypto exchange train and some succeeded greatly. Artists and companies started buying surges with initial advertisement techniques on social media platforms and as more people joined in buying a limited amount of art, some with the purpose of reselling, others with purely collection intentions, more people were exposed to news articles about such sales, and the value rose rapidly.
Sotheby's hosts an auction for 10 thousand semi-randomly generated illustrations of portraits of monkeys in the same position, with permutated combinations of clothing, colours, facial expressions and accessories. The company behind the creation is YugaLabs, a US based company founded just for the purpose of creating a NFT project with ease and earning millions. Until now, 24 million US dollars was spent on a bundle with 101 pieces of such pictures, with the cheapest one being auctioned at 150 thousand dollars.
Sotheby's auction house was established in 1744 and earned it's success by exactly that - amplifying prices of art, jewelry and automobiles and reselling over centuries. The trend of buying NFTs without real world value had already reached it's peek in sales exceeding a hundred million dollars and is expected to fade out of existence, but some notable transactions, such as the mentioned one, still show up from time to time and reach global news coverage.
Glossary:
* decentralized
- synonyms: dispersed, distributed, scattered
- antonyms: assembled, concentrated, centralized
- definition: something that has been dispersed from an area of concentration, something with distributed administrative powers or functions over a less concentrated area
- derivatives: decentralize, decentralization, decentralizing
* permutated:
- synonyms: diversified, differed, altered, diverged, modified
- antonyms: conformed, joined, retained
- definition: something that underwent permutation, rearrangement of items in many possible sequences
- derivatives: permutate, permutating, permutation
* tokens:
- synonyms: badges, expressions, souvenirs, symbols, proofs, manifestations
- antonyms: (not applicable)
- definition: something serving to represent or indicate somme fact, a characteristic indication or mark of something, evidence or proof
- derivatives: tokenization, token, pretoken, tokenism
* fungible:
- synonyms: compatible, synonymous, interchangeable, commutable, exchangeable, substitutable
- antonyms: different, dissimilar, reproduces, nonunique
- definition: being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind
- derivatives: fungibly, fungibility
* auction:
- synonyms: sell-off, jam
- antonyms: (not applicable)
- definition: a publicly held sale at which property or goods are sold to the highest bidder
- derivatives: auctioned, to auction, auctions, auctioning
