Introduction
artèQ is an Ethereum-backed project seeking to help investors capitalize on NFT art as an alternative asset class. To this end, it brings together analog and digital masterpieces into a blockchain-based ecosystem with boundless opportunities. Above all, it makes the emerging crypto art market more accessible to everyone.
The project launched in 2021 and is already leaping across its extensive roadmap. One of the highly anticipated milestones in its development is the upcoming listing on the Swiss Market, which is taking place this May.
This article looks at artèQ’s rapid development, upcoming features, and plans for the world’s first NFT Investment Fund.
Bringing the World’s Best Artworks on Blockchain
Before we dive deeper into the artèQ project, let’s briefly discover why NFTs are crucial to the crypto art market.
An NFT, or a non-fungible token, is an immutable piece of code existing on a decentralized public ledger, or blockchain. It stores essential data, such as ownership, provenance, and a unique transaction hash, making it non-replicable. Simply put, it is almost impossible to steal, duplicate, or forge, which are common challenges in the traditional art world.
When a piece of analog or digital art becomes an NFT, it is stored on the blockchain forever. This “minting” process creates a high-quality replica of the original artwork, certified by its creator. Most importantly, this NFT introduces a new type of asset, producing value and prestige for its owner.
A clear example of this process is the collaboration between artèQ and the prestigious Belvedere Museum in Vienna. On 14th February 2022, the two organizations jointly launched an NFT drop of Gustav Klimt’s masterpiece “The Kiss.” Here’s how it happened!
artèQ created and divided a high-res digital copy of the famous painting into a 100 x 100 grid. Each of the resulting 10,000 unique individual pieces became non-fungible tokens. That’s how the buyers became owners of unique tiles of the Kiss NFT, the only certified digital representation of the worldwide celebrated painting by Gustav Klimt. They don’t own Klimt’s original creation. However, they possess a piece of its blockchain version as an NFT. So, in light of the booming crypto art market, they hold an asset with unlimited value growth potential.
How artèQ Merges Analog Art With NFTs
The artèQ NFT Investment Fund, or The Fund, is currently one of the most exciting initiatives in digital art. Its goal is to gather the best art pieces from notable artists, traditional and digital, into the same space. This blockchain-based platform has its own Ethereum-backed token (ARTEQ), enabling anyone interested in art to invest and participate.
The artèQ Fund actively trades the collected artworks in several auction houses, including its proprietary artèQ’s Auction House. Also, it negotiates their value directly with collectors, museums, and art galleries worldwide. Most importantly, the Fund seeks to build connections with artists and institutions to consistently ensure optimal artwork purchasing conditions.
The artèQ token is listed on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and on data aggregators like Coinmarketcap and CoinGecko. The artèQ token represents the total value of the artworks in the fund, as well as the total assets of the fund in ETH.
The artèQ team possesses solid expertise in both art and technology, which it combines with the limitless opportunities of NFTs. The Fund allows the artèQ Community, i.e., ARTEQ token holders, to access promising investment opportunities. One of them comes from simply holding or staking their token, whose price should increase over time. Therefore, the value of their portfolios could grow substantially in the long run.
The Fund should one day become a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). This will allow its members to collectively govern its evolution without the interference of central authorities. Therefore, the platform should develop according to the interest of those who matter the most, the governance token holders.
The ARTEQ Token
The rapidly-expanding artèQ ecosystem uses an ERC-20 token, ARTEQ, for all operations. The team designed it on the Ethereum blockchain to have a total supply of 10 billion tokens at any time. This means that the protocol will never mint other ARTEQ tokens or burn any of the existing ones.
artèQ started distributing the tokens in January, and it will eventually make the entire supply available to the public. The tokens are already available on decentralized exchanges, i.e., Uniswap.
Furthermore, the ARTEQ token is and its contract is not pausable or upgradeable. This means that users will be able to trade at all times and without interruption. Also, it means that its terms cannot undergo unexpected changes or replacements.
artèQ has obtained a positive assessment from CertiK, a leading blockchain security ranking platform, for its investment fund and related smart contracts. This means that the project’s functioning mechanisms do not have any pending issues and hold a high degree of security.
The Expanding Ecosystem Around the artèQ Fund
It’s worth noting that despite its name, the Fund does not function as a traditional investment organization. For example, it does not distribute dividends or profits to token owners. Instead, the members’ investments contribute to the value growth of the Fund’s exclusive artwork collection. The token owners might receive specific privileges as the Fund grows, such as special services, discounts, and a lot more.
artèQ plans to develop a limitless ecosystem of business features and activities around the Fund. They will support and leverage the artèQ NFT, build strategic partnerships, and advance the digital revolution in arts. Here are the most prominent ones:
The artèQ Art Galleries
The artèQ team believes that within the next 5 years, the NFTs and digital art will reach all households. They plan to anticipate this cultural change by opening art galleries that combine traditional and virtual art in a harmonious environment. artèQ has opened the first NFT gallery in Europe in Vienna, and others will soon follow in Berlin and Istanbul.
Metaverse Galleries
artèQ aims to develop further by opening virtual art galleries in the Metaverse. This side of the project will include partnerships with established platforms and creating an artèQ presence in the Metaverse.
The artèQ Auction House
The team refers to it as “artèQ’s major fundamental divisions” and represents a unique, innovative, and open NFT marketplace. Artists worldwide will be able to join, submit, mint, and auction their artworks on this platform.
The artèQ Auction House uses state-of-the-art technology to showcase digital and analog art masterpieces in a secure environment. Unlike most NFT marketplaces, this platform is not a public auction house. In fact, the artèQ Auction House will pass each artwork through a strict selection process, ensuring that only the best pieces end up on sale. This way, it will maintain a high standard of art quality and prestige. Above all, it will provide investors with a gateway to the best NFT artworks on the market.
The artèQ Auction House will collect a commission from every settled action and automatically add it to the Fund’s value.
A Crypto-Backed Loan Program
Another captivating plan in artèQ’s roadmap is developing a crypto-backed loan program for artists. This project should start in 2023 and provide ARTEQ token and NFT holders with access to an exclusive, loan-to-value program. Its goal is to support artists and make the crypto art market more physical.
Additionally, artèQ plans to nurture creative partnerships between artists in the analog and digital fields. Also, the platform will use modern mechanisms to monitor talented artists with a proven track record of sales. This way, the Fund can gather the best artworks from the most prestigious artists, museums, and art galleries to launch special NFT projects.
What Does the Future Hold for artèQ?
The artèQ token will be available for trade as Swiss security with its own ISIN number starting this summer. Before that, artèQ will obtain a Bloomberg/ISIN Swiss listing, attracting more crypto art investors to the project.
Additionally, the artèQ team plans to gain exposure to banks and financial institutions to support its future art-backed crypto-lending products. To this end, the platform seeks to obtain listings on mainstream companies, such as Forbes and Bittrex.
Lastly, one of artèQ’s hottest anticipated events is next month’s release of a 6,000 NFT piece collection representing one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s musical masterpieces.
Final Thoughts
Behind artèQ is a team of technology enthusiasts seeking to merge analog art with emerging technologies like blockchain and NFTs. The artèQ Investment Fund will help people invest and participate in a rapidly-growing NFT art market. Furthermore, it will allow younger generations to develop an interest in art while accessing important investment opportunities.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of CoinQuora. No information in this article should be interpreted as investment advice. CoinQuora encourages all users to do their own research before investing in cryptocurrencies.
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Source: Cryptocurrency - investing.com
