The British auction house, Christie's is leading the way for the art world's acceptance of the crypto revolution and its influence on digital art with the announcement cryptocurrency will be accepted as payment in an upcoming auction.

A 1998 painting by Keith Haring is scheduled to go under the hammer in an auction titled Christie's "20th/21st century" sale in London next week, and the auction house has said potential buyers can pay for the painting - which is estimated between 3.9 million pounds (5.2 million dollars) and 4.5 million pounds (6.25 million dollars) - with ether or Bitcoin. The digital wallet used to pay for the painting must be held at one of the approved custodians, such as Coinbase, Fidelity, Gemini, or Paxos.

"(The painting) is probably the very first example that we see of an artist celebrating the computer ... It was 1984 that Apple Macintosh was first launched. So it's really a piece of history," Katharine Arnold, co-head of post-war and contemporary art for Christie's in Europe, told Reuters. "So the potential for paying in cryptocurrency for the full hammer price and buyer's premium was something that felt like this was a perfect marriage."

The untitled painting features a depiction of a computer as an ode to the arrival of the digital era.

The auction sale will be held on June 30, with the Haring painting going under the hammer alongside "Homme qui chavire", a 12 million - 18 million pound sculpture by Giacometti as well as Picasso's "L'Etreinte", a painting which is projected to fetch between 11 million pounds to 16 million pounds.

"Giacometti is incredibly recognisable ... and this is one of his most iconic works ... This specific cast was cast in 1951 when Giacometti is really at the height of his powers," Keith Gill, head of impressionist and modern art at Christie's in London, said. "These casts are incredibly rare. There are only six that are known, this is one of those six. Many of those others are already in museums."

Emphasizing that partial payments from multiple digital wallets will not be allowed in the sale of the Haring painting, Christie's stated on its website that "only payments sent from digital wallets maintained at these platforms (Coinbase Custody Trust, Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets Services, Gemini Trust Company, Gemini Europe Ltd., Gemini Europe Services Ltd., Paxos Trust Company, Digivault Ltd., Ziglu Ltd., or Archax Ltd.)

will be credited towards this lot purchase, and we will not recognise payments from digital wallets hosted at other exchanges or self-hosted wallets." 

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