Malaysian graffiti artist Katun sold RM1.6 million worth of NFTs in 30 minutes

Despite the pandemic, Abdul Hafiz Abdul Rahman, better known as the graffiti artist Katun, has been working non-stop on collaborations as well as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.

A type of cryptocurrency that is unique and cannot be exchanged, an NFT is best described as a one-of-a-kind trading card. While anything digital can be an NFT, including music, an image, or a recorded sound of you singing, 2021 has seen the sudden boom of digital art NFTs.

Things have since cooled off a bit, but not before Katun sold out all 50 pieces of his NFT art, titled Apes Stand Strong, for a total value of RM1.6 million. Another NFT drop, Mystical Fruits, followed and sold more than 776 tokens within 24 hours.

Sharing with Options that it was his maiden project, Katun is also the first artist to be featured on the NFT platform Superfarm, which hosted both drops.

Explaining the works, he says Apes Stand Strong is about a world that is endlessly volatile, so there is a need to band together and stand united no matter what battles may come.

“Mystical Fruits is about waiting for the fruits of our labour to blossom into something spectacular, sweet and rewarding, a mirror of us evolving into something extraordinary,” Katun continues, adding that 20% of its holders will be randomly chosen to receive an evolved version of the work, called Garden of Bloom, later on.

While he is ecstatic about his success and is already working on another similar project, he confesses that navigating the crypto market and its drastic price changes is one of the big challenges for NFTs.

“It took nine months of planning for us. Every single step had to be planned very strategically. But I believe it is here to stay. This is something still in its infancy. I think NFTs are a great avenue for artists to expose their art to different communities, even though physical art will still be present,” says Katun.

“Plus, the Malaysian NFT community is amazing. They will share all information with anyone who wants to learn and be part of this.”

This article first appeared on Sept 13, 2021 in The Edge Malaysia.