Publishers Weekly
★ 03/11/2024
“The contemporary art market has served as an economic laboratory for the rich to develop a shadow banking system of alternative assets and hedged liquidity,” according to this trenchant debut investigation. New York Times reporter Small argues that non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are “financial tools branded as digital art” and traces the rise and fall of the NFT market through vivid profiles of artists swept up in it. For instance, Small describes how crypto entrepreneur Erick Calderon battled a skeptical art establishment to create an online NFT marketplace where he sold algorithmically generated pieces by himself and others. However, the 2022 crypto crash imperiled his business by provoking traders to illicitly circumvent the royalty system on secondary NFT sales, rendering moot the main incentive for artists to work in the medium. Stories about notable collectors are just as colorful, as when Small describes how Mexican businessman Martin Mobarak burned a Frida Kahlo drawing worth $10 million to drive up the price of an NFT he created from it. Small assembles their finely observed character portraits into a troubling analysis of how the financialization of the art market has reduced culture to commercial tokens whose value depends on their ability to provide a return on investment. This masterful exposé enthralls. Agent: Howard Yoon, WME. (May)
From the Publisher
"In this deeply researched dive into NFTs, the people who make them, and the system that sold them, Zachary Small uncovers the truth behind one of the most dizzying follies of our time." —Town & Country ("The Best Books to Read This May")
“Token Supremacy tackles a jargon-heavy episode of art market history with welcome clarity and arch humor . . . Small skillfully characterizes the fine line between discretion and duplicity at the highest echelons of the art world.” —Melanie Gerlis, Financial Times
"This masterful exposé enthralls." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This isn’t your parent’s art market . . . Small insightfully ties [NFTs'] focus on dollars to an evolution in the meaning of the word 'priceless.'" —Art Edwards, Book and Film Globe
"Anyone who has a genuine interest in modern-day digital art will learn something new from this story . . . Small’s book had me constantly surprised both by how similar the NFT art market is to what came before . . . If you are genuinely interested in NFTs, you’ll learn more about the artists that laid the foundation for NFTs to either successfully enter the space (or not). If you are genuinely opposed to NFTs as an art form and all that they stand for, Token Supremacy will give you some evidence-based ammunition to debate NFT degens the next time they wax poetic about the future of digital art. Take your pick." —Blockworks, Molly Jane Zuckerman
"[A] meticulously documented exploration . . . Small profiles a diverse range of digital artists as well as other influential and often shadowy players across the finance, entertainment, tech, and gaming industries. They also expand the context with forays into pivotal movements in art history, a summary of the 2008 financial crisis, and the rise of the crypto economy. Throughout, Small sharply critiques the erosion of art collecting's prestige by sellers and investors driven by insatiable greed." —Kirkus Reviews
"A fascinating tale about NFTs, the art market, and investment for curious readers . . . NFTs are a complicated subject that Small explains well, without oversimplifying." —Shmuel Ben-Gad, Library Journal
"A delirious chronicle of a deranged era." —Felix Salmon, Chief Financial Correspondent, Axios, and author of The Phoenix Economy
"A riveting dispatch from a digital dream world, Token Supremacy unravels the complexities and contradictions of a bubble in which venerable auction houses sold digital monkey cartoons for millions of dollars. Zachary Small doesn’t just laugh at the absurdity of NFTs—they bring the reader up close to the artists and hustlers who rode the wave to ridiculous fortunes and art-world fame." —Zeke Faux, author of Number Go Up
"A lot of cultural phenomena fall into the 'smile and nod' category—we hear about them, we read about them, we might even have opinions about them, but deep down we don’t really understand how they came about or what they mean. Zachary Small’s rip-roaring account of the NFT boom and bust is a path out of 'smile and nod' and toward true engagement. It shows us that any story about business and culture—as long as it is well told—is actually a story about people in all their flawed, ambitious, and curious glory." —Julia Halperin, former executive editor of Artnet News
"Zachary Small is the perfect, sardonic guide to the meteoric rise of NFTs and the dumpster fire sparked by their fall. Their gripping narrative pulls apart the NFT's unholy mixture of idealism and greed, squiggles and dick jokes, techno-utopianism and bug-ridden tech to reveal the kaleidoscope of ever-changing grifts produced by the latest collision of art and finance."
—Erin Thompson, author of Smashing Statues and art crime professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
"A rollicking journey through the phantasmagoric landscape of NFTs, cryptocurrencies, DeFi and art, with side jaunts into video games and the healthcare industry. Small manages to make the brain-muddling concepts behind all of these things not only legible to the average reader, but animated by a dizzying cast of characters . . . A fun read that proves the old chestnut: life really is stranger than fiction." —Sarah Douglas, editor in chief of ARTnews
“[A] gimlet-eyed chronicle . . . An alternately amusing and disturbing document of the personalities driving this strange chapter in the long history of art’s financialization.” —The New Yorker
Library Journal
02/01/2024
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital or physical objects that, via blockchain technology, allow digital artworks to record transactions that indicate ownership. New York Times investigative reporter Small's first book is a detailed history of NFTs and the relationship between the art and finance worlds. NFTs are a complicated subject that Small explains well, without oversimplifying. Their narrative starts with the moment when NFTs were adopted by people who wanted to create, through cryptocurrency, the ability to trade directly without using intermediaries like banks or social media platforms. Some crypto users who were not wedded to utopian ideologies used NFTs as financial investment vehicles, leading to the creation of a highly volatile and speculative market for digital art. Even the traditional art market got involved, with Christie's auction house selling an NFT for $69.3 million in 2021. Small is not dismissive of digital art—which they consider a legitimate and effective medium—but argues that the sector is rife with corruption and intellectual dishonesty. Their criticisms also reach the traditional art market, perhaps the largest unregulated market in the world and a key vector of finance and investment. VERDICT A fascinating tale about NFTs, the art market, and investment for curious readers who have a solid understanding of how crypto and finance work.—Shmuel Ben-Gad
Kirkus Reviews
2024-02-09
An in-depth exposé of the recent multibillion-dollar surge and explosive crash in the speculative realms of digital art and crypto finance.
New York Times reporter Small dissects the recent history of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and their significant effect on the investment art community, initiated by the sale of a digital artwork compilation at Christie's in 2021 for $69.3 million. “It was an outrageous sum for digital art—the kind of world record that raises conspiracy theories about the motives of its buyers and sellers,” writes the author. “Suddenly the art market was on the fulcrum of decentralized finance, splitting its weight between the invading crypto billionaires and the ancien régime of traditional art collectors. But auctioneers tipped the balance in favor of the new money, scrambling to find a historical precedent for their new cash cow.” In this sprawling narrative maze, Small profiles a diverse range of digital artists as well as other influential and often shadowy players across the finance, entertainment, tech, and gaming industries. They also expand the context with forays into pivotal movements in art history, a summary of the 2008 financial crisis and the rise of the crypto economy. Throughout, Small sharply critiques the erosion of art collecting's prestige by sellers and investors driven by insatiable greed. “The NFT explosion,” writes the author, “had begun with a deadly symmetry exposing culture’s worst tendencies: toward trustlessness, toward scarcity, toward desperation and sycophancy…criminals took advantage of the zeitgeist and errant entrepreneurs played at expertise.” In their meticulously documented exploration, Small reveals insights hinting at a compelling core story. However, the intricate details and tech-speak will overwhelm many general readers. In the hands of a more seasoned storyteller such as Michael Lewis, the material would resonate with a wider audience.
A well-researched but overly dense account of the impact of NFTs on the art market.
