Dubai art dealer uses NFTs for fractional art ownership

A Dubai tech startup is introducing tokenisation to the art world, after the NFT bubble burst spectacularly.

10101.art aims to make investing in art accessible to all by selling digitised fragments of works by artists including Andy Warhol, Banksy and Picasso, allowing for collective ownership of a masterpiece for as little as $100 a fragment.

The actual paintings are displayed in 10101.art’s gallery, which has opened in the Dubai International Financial Centre.

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Tokenisation is the blockchain alternative to any other ownership, and an NFT – a non fungible token – is a unique digital certificate that confirms your ownership rights.

Nearly 95 percent of all NFT collections have a market cap of 0 Ether, according to a report by the gambling website dappGambl, leaving 23 million people with worthless investments as of last year.

Ether is a cryptocurrency used in Ethereum’s global virtual machine which is used to pay for transaction fees and computational services.

However, CEO Alina Krot said that, in 10101.art’s case, the NFTs represent parts of the physical artwork.

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“When you say NFT, people think of digital images. It’s not. It’s technology. It’s a digital certificate that confirms your ownership of anything: real estate, watches, luxury cars, art. 

“The scam was selling digital images and waiting for people to buy them – and then they just disappeared,” Krot said. 

Art has grown 11 percent in value year on year and more than doubled over the past decade, according to Knight Frank’s latest Wealth Report, surpassing jewellery, watches and wine as a luxury investment.

Watch the video to understand how the NFT art platform works and how regulations continue to be a challenge for blockchain startups.