Christie’s, the 258-year-old British auction house best known for selling masterpieces like da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, has been one of the most high-profile traditional institutions to embrace digital art.
Its $69.3 million sale of Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days in 2021 became a watershed moment that propelled nonfungible tokens (NFTs) into the mainstream.
Christie’s was founded in 1766 in London by James Christie, a Scottish auctioneer who quickly made a name for himself as one of the leading figures in the art world.
The auction house gained popularity by handling sales of fine art, antiques, and luxury goods, establishing itself as a marketplace for collectors and aristocrats. Over more than 250 years, it has grown into one of the world’s most renowned auction houses.
However, the firm is pulling back. Christie’s has shut down its standalone non-fungible token (NFT) department and reportedly laid off staff.
A spokesperson described the move as a “strategic decision,” even as the auction house pledged to keep offering NFTs at future auctions. Two employees, including its vice president of digital art, were let go, though at least one digital specialist will remain.
The auction house leaned heavily into Web3 after Beeple’s blockbuster sale. It launched a dedicated NFT platform in September 2022 and even created a crypto-only real estate team the following year.
In 2021, art NFTs peaked with $2.9 billion in trading volume, but by the first quarter of 2025 that number had collapsed 93% to just $23.8 million, according to DappRadar’s report. Active traders also plunged from over half a million in 2022 to fewer than 20,000 this year, showing how the hype has faded.
The NFT market has shrunk dramatically in marketcap as well, falling from about $16 billion in April 2022 to just $6 billion by September 2025, data from CoinGecko shows.
Advisers say the cutback reflects simple economics.
Digital art adviser Fanny Lakoubay said:
