The Current Meta
In the quiet corridors of the crypto art world, October 2019 marks a watershed moment that most mainstream observers are entirely ignoring. While Bitcoin trades around $8,100 and the broader cryptocurrency market consolidates above $220 billion in total capitalization, a revolution in digital art ownership is gathering momentum — and it is being led, unexpectedly, by artists from Africa.
Osinachi, a Nigerian digital artist whose vibrant, politically charged works explore themes of identity and existence, has become one of the breakout stars of the blockchain art movement. His solo exhibition “Existence as Protest” at the Kate Vass Galerie in Zurich has produced 10 crypto artworks that have sold out entirely on SuperRare, Ethereum’s premier curated digital art marketplace. The prices tell a compelling story: individual pieces that launched at 2 ETH (approximately $356) have appreciated to 6 ETH ($1,068) in secondary market trading within just two months.
This is not an isolated phenomenon. Across the NFT ecosystem, October 2019 is seeing the emergence of a truly global community of digital artists who are discovering that blockchain technology offers something the traditional art world has systematically denied them: direct, frictionless access to international collectors without gallery gatekeepers, geographic barriers, or institutional bias.
Volume & Floor Dynamics
The SuperRare platform operates on a simple but powerful model: each artwork is a single-edition digital piece, tokenized as an ERC-721 non-fungible token on the Ethereum blockchain. This guarantees provenance, authenticity, and scarcity — three properties that the digital art world has struggled to establish since the internet made infinite reproduction trivial.
Osinachi’s trajectory illustrates the market dynamics at play. With Ethereum trading at $178 in mid-October 2019, even modest ETH-denominated prices translate into meaningful income for artists in emerging markets. A 6 ETH sale represents roughly $1,068 — a significant sum in Nigeria, where the average annual income hovers around $2,000. This economic asymmetry is one of the most compelling aspects of the crypto art movement: it creates genuinely global earning potential for talented creators regardless of their physical location.
The broader NFT market metrics, while still modest compared to the explosive growth of 2021, show healthy fundamentals. OpenSea, the largest marketplace for crypto collectibles, is facilitating trades across multiple NFT standards including ERC-721 and ERC-1155. KnownOrigin and MakersPlace are providing alternative venues with different curation models, while newer entrants like Rarible are pushing toward community governance models that could reshape how digital art markets operate.
Christie’s and Sotheby’s have yet to enter the NFT space — but the infrastructure being built in October 2019 is laying the groundwork for the institutional embrace that will come later. Private sale platforms are already experimenting with metadata-organized digital collections, as documented in academic research published this month examining how NFT marketplaces structure and organize their offerings.
Community Sentiment
The reaction to Osinachi’s success within the crypto art community has been electric. On SuperRare’s social channels and in collector Discord servers, the artist’s sell-out exhibition is being held up as proof that the NFT model works — not just for Western tech-savvy creators, but for artists from any background who produce compelling work.
Kate Vass Galerie’s approach of bridging physical and digital art is particularly noteworthy. The gallery is simultaneously exhibiting Osinachi’s work as physical prints in Zurich while selling the original digital editions on SuperRare. This dual-channel model addresses one of the key criticisms of digital art — the lack of tangible experience — while preserving the blockchain-verified uniqueness that gives the works their value.
The community is also energized by the entry of the Winklevoss Twins’ Nifty Gateway platform and the emergence of Async Art’s programmable art concept. Each new platform expands the definition of what an NFT can be, moving beyond static images toward dynamic, interactive digital experiences. For artists like Osinachi who work primarily in digital media, this expanding toolkit of creative possibilities is transforming what it means to be an artist in the blockchain age.
The Next Evolution
Several converging trends suggest that the global digital art movement is approaching an inflection point. Verisart, a blockchain certification platform, closed a $3 million seed funding round in October 2019, bringing institutional validation to the concept of blockchain-verified art provenance. The platform’s ability to certify both physical and digital artworks positions it as a bridge between traditional and crypto art worlds.
Simultaneously, academic and legal frameworks are beginning to catch up with the technology. Research published in October 2019 is examining the legal implications of non-fungible tokens, including questions of ownership rights, intellectual property, and cross-border regulatory compliance. This scholarly attention signals that NFTs are being taken seriously as a legitimate innovation, not dismissed as a crypto curiosity.
The expansion of Samsung’s Blockchain Keystore to more Galaxy devices, announced at the Samsung Developer Conference this month, will dramatically lower the barrier to entry for mobile users who want to interact with NFTs. When creating and collecting digital art becomes as simple as opening an app on your phone, the addressable market expands from crypto enthusiasts to billions of smartphone users worldwide.
Investor Takeaway
The Osinachi story is more than a heartwarming narrative about art and technology — it is a data point in a larger trend that has profound implications for the NFT market. When a Nigerian digital artist can sell out a collection at escalating prices through a Swiss gallery on an Ethereum-based platform to collectors scattered across the globe, the traditional art world’s geographic and institutional gatekeeping has been fundamentally disrupted.
For investors and collectors, the message is clear: the NFT market of October 2019 is in its early accumulation phase. Ethereum at $178 provides affordable access to the ecosystem, and the artists building their reputations today may become the blue-chip names of tomorrow. The secondary market appreciation of Osinachi’s work — from 2 ETH to 6 ETH in two months — demonstrates that quality digital art can appreciate rapidly once a collector base is established. Those who identify and support talented creators early stand to benefit from both cultural significance and financial returns as the market matures.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. NFT investments carry unique risks including illiquidity, smart contract vulnerabilities, and regulatory uncertainty. Past performance of individual artworks does not guarantee future results. Always conduct your own research before purchasing digital collectibles.
osinachi going from 2 eth to 6 eth per piece in two months on superRare is wild. african digital artists been carrying the nft space before it was cool
african artists were minting on superRare before the 2021 NFT boom made it mainstream. the early adopters got ignored until the market caught up
existence as protest is such a powerful title for a solo show. the work deserved every bit of that secondary market appreciation
Yuki S. the title hits different when you know nigerian politics. existence as protest wasnt just branding it was the whole thesis
osinachi was doing generative art with google docs before most people knew what NFTs were. total pioneer and still underrated imo
google docs as a creative medium is such an underappreciated origin story. constraints breed creativity and osinachi proved that