It's the first sale ever in a major auction house of a piece of art that does not exist in physical form.

I don't even it's I yeah.

Just hours after the sale of the artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as People, was stunned.

22 million people logged in for a chance to own his work.

Christie says.

The closing bid put him in the top three most valuable living artists.

It's like an unfathomable number.

To be quite honest.

It's just crazy.

The work, titled Every Day's the 1st 5000 Days, is a collage of 5000 images he made over more than 13 years, and its exceptional success is part of a frenzy for what is known as non fungible tokens or N.

F.

T s.

That's when a digital asset is authenticated by Blockchain, which certifies its originality, and ownership enthusiasts and investors are pouring into what they see as a new way to invest.

And without it, people says, there was no legitimate way to buy digital art.

Digital artists design websites, they design apps, they design, um, you know, TV shows how TV shows look.

They design how characters looking movies and, you know, sci fi and marvel, and that's all digital artists.

So they have a huge, huge impact on the visual language of the world.

And so I think now being able to collect them and sort of look at them.

As you know, real artist.

I'm super super excited about with N.

F.

T s, the artist royalties are locked in the contract.

People receives 10% each time the work changes hands.

And it's not just digital art that can be minted as FTS music albums, sports collectibles, even tweets are being minted.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is gearing up to sell his first ever tweet as an N F.

T.

Despite the hype, though some have warned of risks.

One Cryptocurrency lawyer in New York says that N.

F.

T s raise issues linked to insurance, tax and intellectual property.

Still, he told Reuters he expects the entire physical art market to digitize towards N.

F.

T s in the next five years.