Mike Winkelmann's Net Worth: How Much He Made From Crypto Art
By Mark PrvulovicMar. 11 2021, Published 3:12 p.m. ET
Whether it be a Rembrandt or a Picasso, famous works of art can easily sell for astronomical amounts of money. However, few would have guessed that crypto art would sell for tens of millions of dollars as well.
Mike Winkelmann, also known by his crypto artist pseudonym Beeple, has quickly become one of the richest artists in the world right now. His most recent collection of crypto art made the news on March 11 when it sold for a staggering $60.3 million in an auction. While Winkelmann's fame has only recently hit a feverish pitch thanks to the explosion of interest in crypto art, he had already made a name for himself in the crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) world. After all of these years of selling crypto art, exactly how much is Winkelmann's net worth?
About Mike Winkelmann
Winkelman is a graphic designer from South Carolina. He has been producing a wide range of digital media, including short films, animated clips, and various other works of art. According to his website, his earliest projects date back to 2007 when he first posted his work online under the nickname Beeple. Since then, Winkelmann dedicated himself to posting one new piece of art every day online. He called it the "everyday project." By the time Winkelmann finished the project, he had produced over 5,000 pieces of art, which would be later sold together in a collection called "Everydays: The First 5,000 Days."
Although Winkelmann didn't become famous overnight, his popularity grew steadily thanks to his consistent output. As the popularity of crypto art and NFTs continued to skyrocket, Winkelman ended up becoming the premier crypto artist out there.
NFT art sale at Christie's
While most pieces of crypto art are sold via NFT marketplaces, like OpenSea, Winkelmann's most recent collection was sold at the prestigious Christie's Auction House for a record-breaking $60.3 million or $69.3 million if you include auction fees. Not only was this the largest digital art sale in history, but it was also the third-largest art sale of any artist currently living.
.@beeple 's 'The First 5000 Days', the 1st purely digital NFT based artwork offered by a major auction house has sold for $69,346,250, positioning him among the top three most valuable living artists. Major Thanks to @beeple + @makersplaceco. More details to be released shortly
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) March 11, 2021
It's also a big deal for the traditional art world, which might be more willing to embrace crypto art and NFTs in the future due to this success. This was also the first time for Christie's Auction House, which had never sold a piece of digital art before. Overall, the NFT crypto market is skyrocketing. According to the NFT Report, NFT sales broke $250 million back in 2020, with a sizeable portion of that being strictly crypto art.
Mike Winkelmann's net worth
Winkelmann's exact net worth isn't known, but we can get a pretty good picture of roughly how much he's worth. Even before hitting it big in 2021, Winkelmann was already a millionaire. Prior to the collection that sold for $60.3 million, he sold another work for $6.6 million via an online cryptocurrency marketplace called Nifty Gateway.
Previously, it isn't known exactly how much Beeple was making. Thanks to Christie's auction, we know Winkelmann's net worth is around $70 million or possibly more. Most of his net worth was also made in the past two years as the demand and prices for crypto art continued to skyrocket.
