Beeple 的 NFT 派對：加密貨幣歡呼與監管困境的故事

去年11 月，藝術家Beeple 舉辦了一場美國大選之夜派對，其中包括一場吃熱狗比賽，螢幕上展示他頑皮的政治形象，演員們戴著金正恩、埃隆馬斯克等政治和科技領導人的不可思議的橡膠面具。

The digital artist Beeple became a poster boy for crypto in 2021, when Christie’s sold his NFT (non-fungible token) artwork Everyday: The First 5,000 Days for a record-breaking $69.3m.

2021 年，數位藝術家 Beeple 成為加密貨幣的代言人，佳士得拍賣行以創紀錄的 6,930 萬美元出售了他的 NFT（不可替代代幣）藝術品《Everyday: The First 5,000 Days》。

The sale epitomised the crypto community’s efforts to disrupt the art market, introducing new types of transactions, artists and behaviour. But Beeple’s crypto ties also hinted at a darker side to the NFT boom.

此次拍賣集中體現了加密貨幣社群為顛覆藝術市場、引入新類型的交易、藝術家和行為所做的努力。但 Beeple 與加密貨幣的連結也暗示了 NFT 繁榮的陰暗面。

While right-wing figures such as Donald Trump and Elon Musk often appear in Beeple’s irreverent, vulgar caricatures, the artist and his election party guests exploded into cheers when Trump’s victory was announced.

雖然唐納德·川普和伊隆·馬斯克等右翼人物經常出現在畢普爾不敬、粗俗的漫畫中，但當川普獲勝的消息宣佈時，這位藝術家和他的選舉派對嘉賓爆發出歡呼聲。

Their euphoria reflected the cryptocurrency community’s belief that it will enjoy a more favourable regulatory climate under a second Trump term.

他們的興奮反映了加密貨幣社群的信念，即在川普第二任期內，它將享受更有利的監管環境。

The crypto industry’s leading Super Pacs (political action committees) poured more than $130m into Trump’s campaign, while Gary Gensler, the current chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), became persona non grata for his enforcement of regulation against crypto.

加密貨幣行業領先的超級政治行動委員會(Super Pacs) 為川普的競選活動投入了超過1.3 億美元，而現任證券交易委員會(SEC) 主席加里·詹斯勒(Gary Gensler) 因其對加密貨幣的監管而成為不受歡迎的人物。

Binance, Coinbase and other crypto exchanges had sustained major losses as the SEC enforced existing laws rather than developing a new regulatory framework that made more exceptions for cryptocurrencies.

由於 SEC 執行現有法律，而不是製定新的監管框架，為加密貨幣提供更多例外，幣安、Coinbase 和其他加密貨幣交易所蒙受了重大損失。

After Trump’s victory, the price of ethereum—the cryptocurrency that NFTs are typically traded in—and bitcoin surged. Trump has nominated Paul Atkins, a cryptocurrency advocate, to run the SEC, and picked David Sacks, a former PayPal executive, for the new position of crypto and artificial intelligence czar.

川普獲勝後，以太幣（NFT 通常交易的加密貨幣）和比特幣的價格飆升。川普提名加密貨幣倡導者保羅·阿特金斯 (Paul Atkins) 來管理 SEC，並選擇 PayPal 前高管大衛·薩克斯 (David Sacks) 擔任加密貨幣和人工智慧沙皇的新職位。

Meanwhile Musk, the world’s richest man and backer of the cryptocurrency dogecoin, will co-direct the new Department of Government Efficiency (or Doge).

同時，世界首富和加密貨幣狗狗幣的支持者馬斯克將共同領導新成立的政府效率部（或Doge）。

The art market’s NFT craze in 2021 was preceded by a crypto bull run and heralded by a massive purchase by a crypto entrepreneur.

2021 年藝術市場的 NFT 熱潮之前是一場加密貨幣牛市，並以一位加密貨幣企業家的大規模購買為先兆。

One might reasonably expect a second-wave NFT boom is on its way. But some experts believe an anticipated lack of regulatory enforcement in the crypto sector during Trump’s second term could kill off NFTs entirely.

人們可以合理地預期第二波 NFT 熱潮即將到來。但一些專家認為，預計川普第二任期內加密產業缺乏監管執法可能會徹底消除 NFT。

Rohan Grey, a professor at Willa­mette University and the research director of the Digital Fiat Currency Institute, says the NFT market reached its previous, dizzying heights only because regulation targeted other crypto assets—namely, initial coin offerings (ICOs).

威拉米特大學教授、數位法定貨幣研究所研究主任羅漢·格雷(Rohan Grey) 表示，NFT 市場之所以達到之前令人眼花繚亂的高度，只是因為監管針對的是其他加密資產，即首次代幣發行(ICO)。

An ICO is a form of funding through which a company issues a crypto-token that represents a stake in a company or project to interested investors.

ICO 是一種融資形式，公司透過該形式向有興趣的投資者發行代表公司或專案股權的加密代幣。

In 2017, ICOs exploded in popularity as start-ups and app developers began raising hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of coins to fund their projects.

2017 年，隨著新創公司和應用程式開發人員開始籌集價值數億美元的代幣來資助他們的項目，ICO 迅速流行起來。

Grey says: “It was basically issuing shares without going through the share registration process, and it was so scammy that it was giving more established crypto money a bad name.

格雷說：「它基本上是在不經過股票註冊程序的情況下發行股票，而且它是如此的詐騙，以至於給更成熟的加密貨幣帶來了壞名聲。

“Then came the regulatory pushback—which isn’t surprising considering that no one seemed to come up with a name that didn’t sound like IPO (initial public offering), which is, of course, regulated by the SEC. That’s when NFTs started coming up as a workaround.”

「隨後出現了監管阻力——考慮到似乎沒有人想出一個聽起來不像 IPO（首次公開募股）的名字，這並不奇怪，當然，IPO 是受 SEC 監管的。就在那時，NFT 開始作為一種解決方法出現。

Unlike cryptocoins, NFTs are ‘non-fungible’—that is, unique. If you put 100 NFTs in a row, each one is different, whereas all cryptocoins are the same.

與加密貨幣不同，NFT 是「不可替代的」——也就是說，是獨一無二的。如果將 100 個 NFT 排成一排，每個 NFT 都是不同的，而所有加密貨幣都是相同的。

Grey says: “So the logic went, ‘If we were doing shares, then all the shares would look the same, but each of these shares is unique.’”

格雷說：“所以邏輯是，’如果我們做股票，那麼所有的股票看起來都是一樣的，但每一個股票都是獨一無二的。’”

By 2019, regulation and enforcement had ripened, with the SEC issuing guidance on when a digital asset qualifies as an investment contract and is therefore a security.

到 2019 年，監管和執法已經成熟，美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 發布了關於數位資產何時符合投資合約並因此成為證券的指南。

The same year, the SEC fined Block.one, a blockchain company, $24m after it had raised billions through an ICO. A year later, the NFT market began to pick up steam.

同年，區塊鏈公司 Block.one 透過 ICO 籌集了數十億美元資金後，美國證券交易委員會對其處以 2,400 萬美元的罰款。一年後，NFT 市場開始加速發展。

Another core feature of NFTs—their artistic features—will make them even more difficult for the SEC to regulate.

NFT 的另一個核心特徵——藝術特徵——將使 SEC 監管變得更加困難。

“There’s a content, meaning and expressive speech element to NFTs that isn’t present in other forms of the crypto market,” says Brian Frye, an artist and law professor at the University of Kentucky who focuses on intellectual property.

「NFT 具有其他形式的加密貨幣市場所不具備的內容、意義和表達性言論元素，」專注於智慧財產權的肯塔基大學藝術家兼法學教授 Brian Frye 表示。

“The NFT market has some benefits to the crypto world from a regulatory standpoint in so far as it’s a different group of people asserting different kinds of interests. This potentially gives the crypto crowd a lever that the regular kind of crypto market in currencies, coins and exchanges don’t necessarily get.”

「從監管的角度來看，NFT 市場對加密世界有一些好處，因為不同的人群主張不同的利益。這可能為加密貨幣人群提供常規加密貨幣市場、硬幣和交易所不一定能獲得的槓桿。

But if NFTs were useful to the crypto industry specifically because they were difficult to regulate, their use-case may be about to expire.

但如果 NFT 對加密產業有用，特別是因為它們難以監管，那麼它們的用例可能即將到期。

Under Trump, the industry is anticipating an SEC that will be unmotivated to enforce existing regulatory frameworks at all.

在川普的領導下，業界預計美國證券交易委員會將根本沒有動力執行現有的監管框架。

Trump himself has sold four series of NFTs, the latest of which came out last August, raising millions of dollars for his campaign.

川普本人已出售了四個系列的 NFT，其中最新的一個於去年 8 月推出，為他的競選活動籌集了數百萬美元。

One of the NFTs features an image of Trump dressed as a

其中一張 NFT 上有一張川普打扮成