The auction is scheduled from December 6 to December 13, featuring three pieces available for bidding. The collection comprises two shroom individuals and a pixelated avocado seed named BIP39, expected to fetch between $20,000 and $30,000. Bids can be made in crypto.

Shroomtoshi shared insights about the Ordinals, stating that it’s a pixelated recap of Bitcoin’s first 13 years—a homage to 8-bit art, a tool for cyber-vandalism, and a means to raise awareness about Bitcoin’s core principles.

“It is a thank you to those I worked with and learned from, to those who are not around anymore but whose name should not be forgotten. It is knowledge condensed and a journey for the curious.”

The collection comprises over 200 pieces, paying homage to Bitcoin’s history with depictions of private keys, nods to the Mt. Gox incident, figures representing anonymity, and illustrations of a ‘fiery’ hot wallet. Interestingly, it seemingly includes representations of iconic characters from franchises like Batman, Iron Man, Wall-e, and Super Mario.

The artist, Shroomtoshi, remains anonymous, boasting around 13,000 followers on the BitcoinShrooms X account. Sotheby’s head of digital art, Michael Bouhanna, teased the auction on X with an AI-generated image of an auction room featuring mushrooms and Bitcoin.

After the announcement, Bouhanna highlighted that this auction marks Sotheby’s first sale of Ordinals. Conceptually similar to NFTs, Ordinals on the Bitcoin blockchain use the Ordinals protocol to inscribe data onto individual satoshis, the smallest denomination of Bitcoin.

JPMorgan analysts noted in November that the advent of Ordinals sparked renewed interest in the NFT space. Since then, major exchanges like Binance and OKX have opened their doors to Ordinals trading.

This auction reflects the dynamic intersection of blockchain, art, and technology, providing a unique glimpse into Bitcoin’s history through the lens of Shroomtoshi’s pixelated creations.