According to a recent report on the state of the NFT art market conducted by Art Tactic, a research agency, gender representation remains a serious issue in the non-fungible token (NFT) art space.
The report highlighted that in the last 21 months, female NFT artists accounted for only 5% of total NFT art sales, with male artists getting 77% of the sales. At least 16% of sales were attributed to creators of unknown gender.
Nifty Gateway, a digital-art auction site owned by the Winklevoss twins, was used to assess market activity for the research. The report also analysed the world’s top best-selling NFT artists.
Canadian musician Grimes is the only woman on Art Tactics’ top ten best-selling NFT artists. Grimes made huge sales this year on Nifty Gateway.
Earth — one of many NFTs released by the singer in February — was part of a collection that brought in $5.8 million after selling out in 20 minutes.
What you should know about the crypto market
NFTs, unlike traditional art, are structured to allow artists to profit from secondary market sales. Though volatile, the crypto art market has had a record year, with sales of $3.5 billion in the first nine months of 2021 alone. Sixteen artists received 55% of the money generated from NFT art sales in the last 21 months, according to Art Tactics.
American digital artist Beeple is the most expensive NFT artist. His NFT called “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” sold for $69 million earlier this year. This work is a collage of all the images Beeple has posted online every day since 2007.
The research also highlighted some of the bigger challenges of cryptocurrency wealth inequality and long-standing gender inequalities, implying that the sector still has a long way to go to bridge this gap.
