Sotheby’s Vice President Michael Bouhanna Accused of Insider Trading After Making $1 Million on Art-Themed Cryptocurrency

Bouhanna — not only Sotheby's Vice President but also their Contemporary Art Specialist as well as their Head of Digital Art and NFTs

Sotheby’s Vice President Michael Bouhanna has been accused of insider trading after making $1 million on an art-themed cryptocurrency, according to posts on social media and Medium.

Bouhanna, who is also Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Specialist and Head of Digital Art and NFTs, plays a major role in operating the fine arts auction company.

Bouhanna’s profile on the Sotheby’s website highlights his achievements in driving the company into the digital art world. But his status has also landed him in hot water after social media users found that he anonymously created a “meme coin” that quickly became wildly profitable in the cryptocurrency universe.

The currency was based on Maurizio Cattelan’s conceptual art piece Comedian (2019), where a fresh banana is duct taped to a wall. The piece resurfaced and went viral for a second time after Sotheby’s announced that they will be featuring Cattelan’s piece in their upcoming “Now and Contemporary Evening Auction,” where it is projected to sell for $1.5 million.

After Sotheby’s announced their involvement in selling Cattelan’s piece, Bouhanna anonymously created the “meme coin” called Comedian, or $BAN. According to Art Net, the coin became profitable incredibly quickly, citing a post on Medium saying that “an initial investment of $1,795” rose to “$873,000 in merely two days.”

Soon after users online were able to identify Bouhanna as the creator of $BAN, suspicions about Bouhanna’s status in the digital art and cryptocurrency world spread quickly, questioning how this might have affected the coin’s profitable success.

One particular instance of a trader profiting $1 million on the coin escalated suspicions surrounding Bouhanna, propelling accusations that the Sotheby’s Vice President used his connections in the cryptocurrency community to conduct an insider trading scheme—accusing Bouhanna of encouraging those he is connected with to buy the coin and garner more attention to it to maximize its value.

Bouhanna wrote a lengthy post on X profusely denying the accusations of insider trading, saying that he did not “promote BAN or encourage anyone to buy it” and that the accusation that he profited $1 million dollars from the coin is “completely false.”

Bouhanna said that he chose to launch the coin anonymously because of his status in the art world and involvement with its auction company, not expecting it to go viral.

“When I created BAN, I shared the link with a small group of friends with whom I often exchange NFT and memecoin projects, again without advising them to buy it,” said Bouhanna.

Bouhanna cited his creation of the coin not to Comedian’s current virality, but to his appreciation for its “conceptual questioning of value,” calling his actions a “satirical critique” and “a pointed commentary on the volatile, meme-driven crypto market.”

He also denied Sotheby’s affiliation with the coin or the profits that might have been derived from it.

Sotheby’s has yet to comment on the controversy as they continue to prepare for the widely anticipated auction of Cattelan’s Comedian later this month.