In 2015, before Ethereum was even on the scene, Sarah Meyohas launched Bitchcoin, her own cryptocurrency that lets people trade tokens for her art. The name, Bitchcoin, playfully highlights the male-dominated tech industry. Initially, each coin cost $100, with 25 needed for a full art print. Bitchcoin’s value changes with the demand for her art, and they were available at her gallery openings and online.
Who is Sarah Meyohas?
Sarah Meyohas is a French-American artist who blends art and tech. She took the first steps in crypto art with Bitchcoin, which was linked to her work. She’s an artist who also knows her way around finance, having studied at Wharton’s School of Business and worked at a hedge fund. A photography class in college and her New York upbringing drew her into the art world. Her interest in what gives something value is a big theme in her work, bridging art and finance. She believes both art and finance represent ideas, whether it’s a stock for a company or a beautiful painting of an “ugly” subject.
How Did Bitchcoin Start?
Bitchcoin kicked off five months before Ethereum, marking one of the first times art met blockchain. In 2021, she moved it to Ethereum, linking each coin to her Cloud of Petals project with unique rose petals. She made 3,291 tokens, with 480 auctioned by Phillips, and you can get them on sites like OpenSea. Bitchcoin sparked early ideas of tracking art ownership on blockchain and shared ownership of art.
The idea for Bitchcoin just popped into her head, and she found it amusing. Her work often focuses on women and the female form in capitalism, so creating a currency named Bitchcoin symbolically discussed these themes. Investing in Bitchcoin involves speculating on her future success, giving collectors a stake in her work and giving her more power over its value. This challenges the norm by giving artists more control over the art market.
What is Cloud of Petals?
In 2017, Sarah Meyohas explored how technology affects labor and our ideas of beauty with her Cloud of Petals project. She had 16 workers at Bell Labs pick and photograph 100,000 rose petals, choosing the most beautiful 3,291 for a New York exhibition. Each Bitchcoin represents one of these petals and can be swapped for it, “burning” the coin and adding value.
How Does Bitchcoin Work?
Bitchcoin lets you invest in Sarah’s photography before actually buying a print. Each coin is backed by 25 square inches of her art. When a new release happens, an unframed print goes into a vault, and the same number of Bitchcoins are released. Once you buy a print supported by these coins, those coins disappear or get “burned.”
Looking Ahead
As of March 2024, Bitchcoin Bundles are worth around $7,000 to $9,000. Sarah plans to release more coins through exchanges or auctions to decide their value. She sees Bitchcoin as a way to view the world and images differently, focusing on the value of art as the endpoint of this journey.
The way people see digital collectible art has really shifted over time. Things are moving fast, and even though some people were skeptical at first, Bitchcoin and Sarah Meyohas keeps proving that art and technology can work together in exciting ways. As our world keeps evolving, she’s showing us how these fields can grow and improve together.
