FINE ART ON BITCOIN: A New York Purchase that Tells a Story

On February 9, 2025, while in New York, I bought a few copies of The New York Times. At first glance, it might have seemed like a simple gesture.
But for me, those pages carry symbolic weight: they represent a meeting point between world history, the events that shape it, and the story of Bitcoin itself—through one of the most iconic digital art collections to date: Ordinal Maxi Biz (OMB).

OMB: Fine Art on Bitcoin

The Ordinal Maxi Biz collection consists of 9,000 unique works, each inscribed directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. Created by ZK_Shark in collaboration with Tony Tafuro and Berkin Bags, with technical support from Nullish, OMB has quickly grown into not just an art collection but a cultural movement.

What makes OMB distinctive is the eye color of each piece. These are not mere aesthetic details, but markers tied to historic Bitcoin blocks:

Green Eyes → inscribed on Block 9, directly linked to Satoshi Nakamoto.

Blue Eyes → inscribed on Block 78, associated with Hal Finney.

Red, Orange, and Black Eyes → complete the spectrum, bringing the collection to five different variations.

Each color embodies a piece of the lore, bridging Bitcoin’s history, world events, and contemporary cultural storytelling.

A Movement Backed by the Market

OMB is more than a digital art experiment, it has already secured its place in the collecting world. In April 2024, Christie’s auctioned four OMB pieces (Red, Blue, Green, Orange) for a combined $441,000, marking one of the earliest moments when Ordinals entered the realm of traditional fine art auctions.

On secondary markets, the collection has consistently attracted strong demand, with floor prices ranging around 0.3–0.48 BTC (roughly $20,000–33,000 at the time), depending on rarity and eye color. For collectors, OMB represents not only a piece of Bitcoin’s cultural lore but also a store of prestige, bridging blockchain-native art with the institutions of the traditional art world.

More than a Collection: a Manifesto

OMB is built on the principle of radical ownership. Each piece belongs fully to its holder, with no enforced royalties or mutable metadata. Owners are free to keep, trade, lend, rewrite, or even burn their pieces. This uncompromising philosophy resonates deeply with both Bitcoin’s origins and serious collectors, who value authenticity, sovereignty, and permanence.

Why The New York Times of February 9, 2025 Matters

That day, holding those copies of The New York Times in my hands, I realized I wasn’t just buying a newspaper. I was preserving a tangible trace of something born in the digital realm but already echoing through global cultural narratives.

The Ordinal Maxi Biz are not only about Bitcoin’s history; they weave into the broader history of collecting itself, standing as proof that digital-native works can hold the same cultural and financial gravity as traditional masterpieces.

What seemed like a simple purchase has become a small but meaningful piece of historical memory one that collectors will understand carries far more weight than paper and ink. BTC