Hashkey, a leader in digital asset management and blockchain solutions, worked with art brokerage and auctioneer Macey & Sons to enable one of the first non-fungible token (NFT) artwork private sales paid for with Bitcoin in Hong Kong.
NFT is a unique digital asset that represents a tangible object with a unique identifying code on blockchain. Macey & Sons has partnered with HashKey XPert, the full-service digital asset brokerage that helps professional and institutional investors meet their unique investing goals.
A painting by art collective Tamen was converted into an NFT, which are increasingly used to digitally represent valuable items such as art and music. One of the key benefits is the ability to validate the provenance and authenticity of the art piece on blockchain, thus helping to reduce fake artworks and forgeries. Macey & Sons has been working closely with global law firm DLA Piper to tokenise art pieces on TOKO, the firm’s tokenisation platform. During the process, all legal documents including the certificate of authenticity, and ownership and copyright of a piece are embedded into the NFT, meaning they can easily be transferred to a subsequent buyer. Macey & Sons has established an important precedent for similar transactions in the future.
Macey & Sons leverages HashKey XPert as a platform to accept Bitcoin for the Tamen painting. HashKey XPert offers an institution-grade wallet for corporate and professional clients to use virtual assets for payment. This allows virtual asset holders to broaden their potential clientele who are active in cryptocurrencies.
“The art sector is increasingly adopting NFTs, and we expect to see more NFT art transactions in the future,” said Alexandra Yung, Managing Director of Macey & Sons. “Therefore, it’s important to work with trusted partners to ensure smooth transactions and protection of our investors. The HashKey XPert services are robust and were customised to fit our requirements, enabling our clients to pay with cryptocurrencies for all transactions safely and securely.”
Michel Lee, Executive President of HashKey Group, said, “The partnership with Macey & Sons is strategic and we are delighted to facilitate this transaction. Our goal is to make it easier for investors to invest in art, antiques and other collectible using Bitcoin, Ether and other virtual currencies.”
TAMEN’s NFT piece comments on society’s resistance towards the new and unknown, at the same time putting out a warning – our planet is deteriorating due to human impact. Each component in this painting represents an advancement, whether it be space exploration or the new and trending Bitcoin. Every unconventional invention will generate both excitement and fear, which is why all these components exist outside of our familiar territory of Earth. This piece conveys the importance of constant movement and change over the course of civilisation, in order to create events that can be written into the history of mankind (such as tokenisation and digitalizing assets).
