Queen Elizabeth II Ethereum NFT Tribute Project Holds Final Auction

An Ethereum The NFT project, which produced dozens of Queen Elizabeth II tribute artworks over the past two months, is currently holding its final auction for the collection today, following the death of England’s long-serving monarch.

QueenE launched its auctions in early July, offering a single Ethereum NFT portrait in tribute to the late queen. The project was apparently created by Web3 builds Fabio Seva and the pseudonymous one mladen.ethand was designed to launch new procedurally generated pieces at a steady clip for the rest of the Queen’s life.

The project forked the format and code Noun, an inventive NFT project that auctions off a single Ethereum-based profile picture every day and lets buyers into an exclusive club – but gave it a royal twist by serving up lo-fi renderings of Queen Elizabeth II instead. Originally, the QueenE auctions took place every few hours, but have mostly launched at once daily rate.

At the news of the Queen’s death today, aged 96, it became project announced that the current auction – for the 73rd Ethereum NFT in the collection – will be the last to be released as part of the original collection. A future “Gen2” compilation was teased by the QueenE Twitter account, but no details have been revealed at the time of publishing this article.

“Rest in Ethereum, forever,” the project says Twitter bio reading now.

As of this writing, the final QueenE Gen1 NFT has a top bid of 0.5 ETH, or roughly $825, with the auction set to end just before 4:00 AM ET tomorrow. The previous top ETH sale price for any piece in the collection was 1.9 ETH for QueenE #23 on July 27 – worth about $3,275 at the time.

An NFT is a blockchain token that represents ownership of an item, including digital goods such as artwork, profile pictures, collectibles, and video game items. The NFT market increased through 2021and some notable collectibles have net eight-figure sales prices along the road.

Secondary sales for the QueenE NFTs have picked up since Queen Elizabeth II’s passing was announced earlier today, and currently the floor price – that is, the cheapest available item listed on a marketplace – is at Open sea sitting at 0.88 ETH, or about $1450.

As with nouns, proceeds from primary sales of QueenE NFTs are funneled into a treasury, which is controlled by a DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization—that is, an online group with shared interests and token-based membership. DAO members can vote on proposals that use the funds (currently 10.10 ETH, or $16,650) for various initiatives.