At Sotheby’s on Wednesday night, a single batch of NFTs – 104 digital art assets known as CryptoPunks – were expected to sell for up to $30 million. But after a delay of 25 minutes after the scheduled start time of the auction, the sale was called off.

The sender had removed the pixelated collectibles and posted a meme on Twitter mocking the auction house.

The public inside a packed Sotheby’s auction room were shocked, according to two attendees. The evening started with people drinking champagne and ended with a stunned drive home.

Derek Parsons, a Sotheby’s spokesman, said in a statement late Wednesday that “the lot was withdrawn prior to sale following discussions with the shipper”, but he did not share details of how whose deal fell apart.

“People were extremely upset,” said Kent Charugundla, a telecommunications investor and NFT collector who attended the event.

“It’s so bad for the NFT community,” he added, explaining that the market needed strong selling to keep its momentum going.

Until a year ago, sales of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), a type of blockchain-based collectible, were extremely rare. But after artists like Beeple and Pak sold them for tens of millions of dollars, gallery owners, collectors, celebrities and even thieves we acknowledged.

The NFT boom, which an estimation having generated more than $25 billion in sales last year, has also raised questions about a possible NFT bust as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies see their falling values.

Todd Levin, an art adviser who has worked for the auction house, said auction withdrawals usually happen when there are legal issues or concerns that a lot’s reserve price may be lower. not reached.

“Withdrawal is really the absolute last choice,” Levin said. “Auction houses do their best to arrange these sales in advance.”

Larva Labs created the CryptoPunks in 2017 as a generative project consisting of 10,000 pixelated characters. Dozens of these early NFTs each sold for more than $1 million in Ethereum cryptocurrency, with overall sales totaling more than $2 billion, according to Larva Labs. website.

Sotheby’s said the 104 CryptoPunks were purchased in a single blockchain transaction by an anonymous collector who goes through 0x650d online.

When the auction was announced, Michael Bouhanna, co-head of digital art at Sotheby’s, described the sale in a press release as “a monumental occasion” that celebrated CryptoPunks as “one of the visual styles the most recognizable that have become synonymous with digital”. art Movement.”

The collector did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment via the auction house and social media. On Twitter, 0x650d posted two cryptic messages about the auction. A first post declared the decision toHodl”, Crypto-speak to keep digital assets. Then they shared a meme featuring musician Drake, claiming they “made punks grow by roaring Sotheby’s”.

In the crypto industry, carpet pulls occur when developers intentionally siphon funds from an investor and run away from the project.