Sotheby’s accepts payment in Bitcoin and Ethereum at an auction of diamonds worth about $15 million

Josh Pullan, managing director of Sotheby’s, said that there are few such diamonds put up for auction, which makes it really special.

The sale, titled “The Key 10138”, is for a 101.38-carat diamond that has been classified by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) like color D, flawless and type IIa.

Throughout history, there are only a small number of cut diamonds weighing more than 100 carats, and it is much rarer to find such a diamond of perfect color and purity.

LIa type diamonds are very rare in themselves, because they do not contain nitrogen or boron impurities detected by infrared radiation in their chemical structure, and account for less than 2% of all extracted diamonds. They are considered to be the chemically purest diamonds, therefore they have exceptional transparency.

Thanks to the exceptional payment methods, accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum, Sotheby’s is thus trying to attract the younger digital generation, and many of them live in Asia.

“Over the past year, we have witnessed an insatiable appetite for jewelry and other luxury items from collectors from all over the world. This demand is increasingly coming from the younger generation, digital technology carriers, many of whom are located in Asia,” said Josh Pullan, managing director of Sotheby’s Global Luxury Division.

The sale of this very rare diamond can bring $15 million or more.

Payments in cryptocurrency are becoming more and more common at auctions, whether at Sotheby’s or Christie’s, and we recall that it is on this basis that Diamond Standard will use blockchain technology in diamond trading.

Diamond Standard and innovative technologies

The Diamond Standard company, engaged in the sale of diamonds, has combined a hardware solution based on blockchain technology.

Diamond Standard CEO Cormac Kinney said that diamonds are a valuable natural resource, but each of them is different, so the price also varies.

Diamond Standard sells sets of diamonds on discs the size of a coin.

A standard diamond coin costs $10,000, and a standard diamond bar costs $100,000.

The solution is to fasten the diamonds together, register each of them and track their origin through the blockchain. Thus, you can trade diamonds at the same rate as for cryptocurrencies.

“We have created a diamond product by combining sets of diamonds honestly and transparently”.

Using blockchain technology, diamond owners can store them in secure vaults and remotely check them, thereby avoiding the risk of transportation.

Kinney added that this initiative is possible only with the use of blockchain technology:

“This was made possible only with the help of a blockchain that provides a permanent public record of the content and geological origin of each product, as well as the possibility of remote auditing and transactions”.

Since the company is also interested in reliable storage, it will develop materials with which the custodians can conduct a continuous audit of their assets on the Internet.