AN India-born blockchain entrepreneur has emerged as the mystery buyer of the $69.3 million (£49.9mn) digital artwork last week.
Vignesh Sundaresan, a programmer based in Singapore, won the rights to digital artist Beeple's "Everydays: The First 5000 Days".
Some 22 million viewers tuned in to Christies.com on March 11 for the bidding process, which began at $100.
"This is the crown jewel, the most valuable piece of art for this generation," Sundaresan said, describing his new acquisition.
He wanted to "show Indians and people of color too could be patrons" of arts, he said.
In a first by a big auction house, an artwork of 5,000 images was digitally sold using NFT. An NFT is a non-fungible token, which uses the same blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies to turn any artwork into virtual collector's items.
This technology is now in trend and gives artists a chance to monetise their work and collectors ownership rights, digitally.