Beeple’s NFT Purchaser Metakovan Under Scrutiny

Fine art auctioneer Christie’s closed the sale of Beeple’s NFT “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” amidst high anticipation in the blockchain community. 

Christie’s released a statement that they sold the art to Metakovan for a whopping $69.3 million. Metakovan is the founder of the world’s largest NFT fund called Metapurse. The real identity of Metakovan is not yet disclosed. 

Metakovan’s Might Be Singapore-Based Crypto Entrepreneur 

However, as per independent reporter Amy Castor, Metakovan could be crypto entrepreneur Vignesh Sundaresan, and the NFT auction might have an agenda. Chinese journalist Colin Wu (@WuBlockchain) tweeted Castor’s article, saying,

“It pointed out that $69 million NFT was used to pump B20 price. The purchaser Vignesh Sundaresan has a lot of bad history. The creator of the work also holds a large amount of B20. This high probability is a combination of a connected transaction and SCAM.”

Vignesh Sundaran is a crypto entrepreneur backing several crypto projects since 2014. Castor says that she can hazard a guess Metakovan and Sundaresan are the same based on voice interviews given by Sundaresan and Metakovan and share the same origin story. 

She further claims that the NFT sale is about pumping Metaverse’s B20 tokens so that holders of the B20 and Metaverse can benefit by getting more NFTs or ETH when they sell their tokens. 

Beeple Owns A Sizeable chunk Of B20 Tokens

Metapurse launched a new NFT bundle called B20, allowing token holders to own a share of valuable NFT art and three custom VR museums in Cryptovoxels, Somnium Space, and Decentraland. Metapurse also contains Beeple’s "Everydays: The 2020 Collection," "Urbit Galaxy," "F1 DeltaTime III," and "First Supper."

B20’s total supply is 10 million, and Metapurse owns 59% of all tokens. It is interesting, and as Castor suggests, a conflict of interest that Beeple owns 2% of all B20. The value of B20 shot up to $23 after the Christie’s auction and is now at ~14.50, according to coinmarketcap. 

Coins-E And Vignesh Sundaresan

As per Wu’s tweet, Vignesh Sundaresan has a colorful history with Crypto. In 2013, Sundaresan launched Coins-E in Ontario, a crypto exchange platform that allows its users to exchange various cryptocurrencies. In 2014, he co-founded BitAccess, an early bitcoin ATM company in Canada. Cut to 2017, Sundaresan founded Singapore-based Lendroid Foundation and consulting firm Portkey Technologies claiming to back several crypto projects. 

Coins-E is reputed to be a scam, and Castor states so in her article. Several Coins-E users have taken to social media platforms to complain about the loss of money on the platform, calling it a scam, warning others. Coins-E clients have also reported their dogecoin disappearing. Their frustration only increased when they got no response from tech support.

Sundaresan Responds To Castor’s Article

Castor alleges that the Beeple NFT purchase is an initial coin offering-style index fund to speculate on NFTS. At the same time, Metakovan owns most of the tokens and has an existing business relationship with the artists. She further adds,

“When all was said and done, the Christie’s auction turned out to be a sweet deal for Beeple who now has a reason to shill crypto to his 2 million Instagram followers. And Metakovan gets publicity for his ICO project, so his own personal B20 holdings rise in value.”

Sundaresan wrote to Castor to take down her article once it was published to address concerns about Coins-E about him and claims that there are several factual inaccuracies in her blog and tweets. Castor has refused to take the article down but agreed to make edits if Sundaresan could specify the wrong points. Her blog update states that there has been no response from Sundaresan yet. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.