Pak’s ‘Merge’ Drop on Nifty Gateway Breaks Records in Largest-Ever Public Sale of an Artwork by a Living Artist

We are proud to announce that over the past weekend, digital artist Pak’s Merge drop on Nifty Gateway set the world record for an NFT sale. In 48 hours, 28,983 collectors spent $91,806,519 to purchase 312,686 total units of mass, which have now been merged to create unique NFTs for each collector of mass.

The record breaking doesn’t stop there. Merge also generated the highest sales value by a living artist for a single artwork in a public sale — be it physical or digital art — a milestone that we are thrilled to be a part of.

The Merge collection debuted a compelling mechanism novel to the world of digital art, where collectors who bought multiple units of mass during the sale period unlocked access to an exclusive NFT that expands in size as more mass is added to their collection.

From December 2 through December 4, users were able to collect as much mass as they wanted. At the end of the sale, owners of mass obtained a dynamic NFT that merged all the mass accumulated by each collector during the sale. Collectors who acquire more mass on the secondary market will “merge” purchased mass with their existing mass to grow their NFT.

The mechanism allows for mass available on the secondary market to consolidate, lowering the total number of unique NFTs over time while the total units of mass remain constant. This pioneering approach highlights the social nature of art collecting and market scarcity, while utilizing NFT technology in an innovative way.

An enigmatic creator operating at the vanguard of digital art for decades, Pak specifically chose Gemini-owned Nifty Gateway to create this boundary-pushing artwork. Previously, Pak was central to developing the idea of Open Editions on Nifty Gateway. Open Editions allow collectors to purchase as many NFTs as they wish during the sale period for a fixed price in parallel to a collection that reveals itself over the course of the sale. In Merge, Pak created a new way to reward collectors that is uniquely possible using blockchain technology and Nifty Gateway’s infrastructure, powered by Gemini.

The Merge NFT sale comes on the heels of a number of notable developments for Nifty Gateway. We recently became the first NFT platform to offer collectors significantly reduced gas fees (up to 70% lower) thanks to our unique custodial infrastructure. We also began listing NFTs from other marketplaces and enabling users to list NFTs in ETH directly from their wallets and buy directly from other users’ wallets in ETH.

The previous record for a single artwork sold publicly by a living artist was $91.1 million for Jeff Koons' 1986 sculpture, Rabbit, set in 2019. Earlier this year, digital artist Beeple sold an artwork, Everydays: the First 5,000 days, for around $69.3 million at a Christie’s auction, which held the previous record for an NFT sale.

We are thrilled to have worked with Pak on Merge to create an experience that united collectors from around the globe. As we continue on our mission to have 1 billion people collecting NFTs, we can’t wait to see where our community will take us next!

Onward and Upward!

Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster
Nifty Gateway Co-founders