Christie’s NFT Department Closes Under New Leadership

Summary: Christie’s, the renowned UK-based auction house, has decided to close its dedicated non-fungible token (NFT) department. This shift comes under the new leadership of CEO Bonnie Brennan, as the auction house aims to redefine its approach to digital art sales. Despite this closure, Christie’s will continue to sell digital artworks as part of its broader art offerings.

Key Takeaways

Christie’s is shutting down its NFT department as part of a strategic decision to reformat digital art sales.
This change comes under new CEO Bonnie Brennan, who took charge in February 2023.
Christie’s has played a significant role in the NFT market, facilitating major sales and supporting the ecosystem.
The closure may be due to declining NFT sales and a slowdown in the global art market.
Christie’s will maintain a presence in digital art through its broader art categories.

Christie’s NFT Department Closure

Christie’s Shifts Digital Art Strategy

Christie’s, an esteemed auction house based in the United Kingdom, is closing its dedicated non-fungible token (NFT) department. This decision is part of a strategic move to “reformat digital art sales,” as reported by Now Media on September 8. The news was confirmed by Nicole Sales Giles, Christie’s former VP of Digital Art, who, along with another staff member, was let go at the end of August.

A spokesperson for Christie’s stated that the decision was driven by new CEO Bonnie Brennan’s vision, who took the helm in February this year. The auction house initially entered the NFT space in March 2021 and quickly became influential in bringing digital collectibles to a wider audience, thanks to its long-standing reputation in the auction industry. Christie’s has facilitated some of the most significant sales in NFT history, including Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann’s groundbreaking pieces, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, which sold for $69.3 million, and Human One, which fetched $28.9 million.

In addition to these impressive sales, Christie’s was a supportive force in the NFT landscape during its early phases. The auction house launched its own on-chain auction platform, Christie’s 3.0, collaborated with crypto-centric platforms like OpenSea, and explored new formats like Bitcoin Ordinals, hosting its first Ordinals auction last October.

While Christie’s is dissolving its primary NFT team, it will still offer digital artworks as part of the larger “20th and 21st-century art category,” according to the spokesperson. Furthermore, at least one digital art specialist will remain on staff, and its online auction platform stays operational.

The precise motivations behind Christie’s decision to step back from NFTs were not detailed, but many in the crypto community believe it relates to a downturn in NFT sales and a general slowdown in the global art market. The NFT markets struggled through the previous year, and this decline continued into the first half of 2025, with many popular NFT collections experiencing low trading volumes and sales figures. Just last week, the market encountered one of the most significant weekly drops in sales volume recently, showing a 22.65% decrease.

According to Crypto Slam data, NFT sales volume, along with the number of market participants, has steadily declined since the start of 2024. This situation may not only reflect NFT market challenges but could also be influenced by broader trends in the art market. Fanny Lakoubay, a digital art adviser and curator, suggested that the contraction in the art market could have been a factor in Christie’s decision. She explained that auction houses often cannot justify maintaining an entire department if that area generates less revenue than others, despite some recent successful sales.