Who is XCOPY: The NFT Artist Profile
XCOPY is a legendary crypto artist who has been minting crypto art NFTs since 2018, way before it became cool. His works now sell for thousands of ETH (i.e. millions of dollars) and most are unique 1:1s. Owned by Snoop Dog, sold by Bonhams, XCOPY’s NFTs are among the most sought-after crypto art pieces.
In this post, we’ll explore who is XCOPY, review his crypto art, price history, and check out his most iconic NFTs.
Who is XCOPY?
Born in 1981, XCOPY is a pseudonymous artist who lives in London. He first started publishing his work online as GIF art on Tumblr in August 2010.
XCOPY is one of the crypto art pioneers. He first minted his NFT in 2018.
Some of his NFTs saw light on now-defunct platforms Ascribe.io, R.A.R.E Art Labs, and Digital Objects.
On SuperRare, XCOPY was the second-ever artist to mint an NFT.
While XCOPY’s art is public and on-chain, little is known about his personal history. Judging by the themes of XCOPY’s art, he was no stranger to working in the corporate zombieland. That theme runs through many of his works.
Crowds on Waterloo train station.
“Being a worker drone on the 10th floor,” faceless, plugged in desk jockey.
Drinking too much coffee in WeWork.
Shopping at Tesco Metro.
And even the dread of working from home — captured that feeling back in 2019.
XCOPY’s crypto art
The distinctive style of XCOPY’s crypto art is characterized by a combination of bright neon colors like cyan and magenta mixed with black and white. Jagged lines, as if done by fat, graffiti-like markers and spraypaint, remind of street art or online ‘Paint’ memes.
Many XCOPY pieces are GIFs with fast flashing lights that look like computer glitches and static noise. Some pieces even have epilepsy warnings.
Dark, grim themes of death and dystopia are another defining feature of XCOPY. Skulls, fangs, tears, flames, bombs, and violently crossed faces like something you’d expect to see in art from a psychiatric ward.
“I like contrasting everyday problems with death, it takes away their power for a moment. Dystopia creeps in further everyday, it's hard not to talk about it.” XCOPY said in a rare interview.
Some XCOPY pieces are purely abstract: pixels, glitches, radiants.
As of November 2021, XCOPY has released 140 NFTs on SuperRare, his biggest platform, and over 1454 crypto art NFTs across 10 smart contracts, according to NFTNDX.io.
XCOPY NFT prices
XCOPY is one of the highest-priced crypto artists, second only to Beeple and Larva Labs.
Several XCOPY’s early works are among the top-10 most expensive NFTs. And unlike with rare CryptoPunks that dominate the top ranks, XCOPY’s most valuable NFTs are 1:1s. This means that there is only one copy of each work and its value is based purely on art, not on the rareness of on-chain attributes.
Below are some of the most expensive and storied NFTs from XCOPY’s body of work.
A Coin For The Ferryman, XCOPY
A 2018 piece (1:1), A Coin For the Ferryman was re-sold on SuperRare in November 2021 for a record-setting price of 1,330 ETH or $6,017,292 at the time of the transaction.
Some Asshole by XCOPY
In September 2021, Snoop Dogg, who is known in the crypto world as Cozomo di Medici, has bought XCOPY’s 1:1 Some Asshole (2018) for 1,300 ETH or $3,860,337 at the time.
- This is XCOPY’s seventh NFT minted on SuperRare.
- Back in 2018, XCOPY accepted an offer of 0.5 ETH ($328 back then) to sell his newly minted piece.
Death Dip by XCOPY
In March 2021, shortly after Beeple’s legendary $69 million sale, prominent collector 4156 has bought Death Dip for a cool 1,000 ETH (then $1,735,000), setting the record for the highest sale on SuperRare.
All Time High in the City by XCOPY
The 2018 piece was re-sold for 1,000 ETH or $2,923,871. Just two years before that, the seller bought All Time High in the City for 10 ETH.
Reflection by XCOPY
Another 2018 piece in 1:1 from SuperRare, sold in March 2021 for 475 ETH or $872,575 back then. It’s a GIF so a static image doesn't do justice. Make sure to click on the link to view it in the gallery.
Last Selfie by XCOPY
Minted on KnownOrigin in 1 of 10 editions in 2018. In November 2021, one of them sold for 165 ETH or over $700k.
The price trajectory is quite dizzying, especially given XCOPY’s early sales in the middle of the crypto winter.
Luckily, XCOPY gets 10% of all secondary sales on SuperRare. This royalty is baked into smart contracts and is one of the things that makes crypto art so lucrative for artists. In the traditional art world, all that value would have been captured by gallerists, art dealers, and other intermediaries.
In total, XCOPY’s NFTs are now worth an estimated $50 million.
Other XCOPY NFT projects
If you’re interested in new XCOPY mints, you have to watch out for various copycats. XCOPY’s minimalist and characteristic style has already inspired lots of imitations.
On some marketplaces like OpenSea, you should watch for the verified checkmark to make sure that the NFTs are indeed created by XCOPY.
Besides 1:1 mints, XCOPY also took part in several crypto NFT projects: Plasma Bears, , PixelChain, CryptoVoxels, Async.Art, and NFTboxes.
XCOPY’s PixelChain NFTs
PixelChain is a decentralized app that lets anybody create 14x14 pixel art that is stored as ERC-721 NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.
In 2020, XCOPY has minted a total of 12 PixelChain NFTs. All XCOPY’s PixelChains are purely abstract, featuring his distinctive color pallet with dominating black, cyan, and red.
In August-September 2020, the pixels changed hands for about 1 ETH. There were few transactions since then and it seems that the latest was March 2021 sale for 10 ETH.
XCOPY’s Plasma Bears
Plasma Bears was an early NFT project that was launched in 2018 even before CryptoKitties defined the ERC-721 standard for NFTs. The project ran on a now-defunct sidechain and most bears have disappeared.
A bundle of the few surviving Plasma Bears by XCOPY are now listed for 1,000 ETH. The floor price for individual XCOPY's Plasma Bears are at somewhere about 30 ETH.
CryptoVoxel Items by XCOPY
CryptoVoxel is a virtual world (aka a metaverse) on the Ethereum blockchain. Anyone can mint ‘wearables’ and other items that could be used in the CryptoVoxel world.
In November 2019, XCOPY has minted 10 CryptoVoxel wearables. Initially, they were sold for 0.06 ETH. Now they’re listed for 14 ETH.
XCOPY’s Async.Art
Async.Art is an interactive crypto art platform where artists launch ‘Masters’ and ‘Layers’, which can modify the master.
As of November 2021, there are 5 XCOPY Masters, including The Rabble, latest monumental piece with 44 layers.
NFTBox with XCOPY
Launched by Pranksy, a prominent NFT collector, NFTBoxes is a curated subscription that sends a bundle of NFTs every month to about 500-700 subscribers. The NFTs are currated by a prominent
For April 2021 box, XCOPY created SAINT_LESS in 3 lots, each with 200 editions. So in total, there are 600 NFTBox XCOPY pieces.
Now that we’ve covered the wealth of different XCOPY NFTs, let’s see where to buy them.
XCOPY on Opensea and Other Marketplaces
Like most other NFTs, XCOPY work could be bought on Opensea, the largest NFT marketplace.
But XCOPY actually minted his NFTs on other platforms and there you can see the price history:
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