Almond Blossom(2022) by artists Jasna Barisic
Cobra (2021), by artist Stefan Johansson
Diamond Heads PSA (2022) by artist Daniel Maltzman
ATO, buyers and collectors leapfrog from an unverifiable price to an authenticated Bloomberg-style investor’s report on their collection.
— Carrie Eldridge
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA, August 19, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — ATO supplies the financial resources and tools for artists to manage their careers and bodies of work. An asset to all art market participants, with ATO, buyers and collectors leapfrog from an unverifiable price to an authenticated Bloomberg-style investor’s report on their collection.
On August 22, ATO will launch its revolutionary and affordable art asset management system. Using a secure blockchain and physical tagging the platform offers artists and their estates a direct financial stake in future sales and tools to track market data and protect against counterfeiting benefitting gallerists, collectors, and nonprofits. Based on five years of market research, two variations of the software built on various blockchains, including multiple surveys, the platform’s infrastructure, and pricing have been developed with an artist-centric approach to meet a critical need for transparency, artists royalties and environmental sustainability in the art field.
A fundamental mission for the ATO platform is to make artist resale royalties a global standard. Resale royalties have been mass adopted in NFT marketplaces proving that they do not deter the market. Considering principles of fairness, years of advocacy to legislate in the U.S. and beyond, and a desire to provide tools for artists to obtain more financial independence, ATO helps artists and their estates receive a fair share, 5-9%, on all resale of works listed on the platform.
According to Bloomberg Business, “there is no airtight system for artwork authentication.” ATO proves them wrong. The counterfeit market is estimated to cost artists and their heirs approximately 7 billion dollars annually. As NFT marketplaces grapple with scams, ATO counteracts counterfeits with its unique community-driven economic system of give-and-take. Collectors opt-in to report provenance and pay royalties; default is met with harsh financial penalties, legal implications, and being banned from purchasing art. Most importantly, the title of work transfer failures and denial of access to authentication and validation will yield counterfeit art valueless in the eyes of the market, insurance purposes, and auction houses.
Striving to create positive change in the art market, founder Carrie Eldridge is a former wealth manager at Morgan Stanley and one of the few black female founders in the blockchain and art space. Business Insider notes that as of 2020, only 93 Black women had raised $1 million or more in venture funds. Eldridge comments: “We leverage technology to provide equal opportunities for artists. Unfortunately, statistics on the representation of female and BIPOC artists are discouraging. Artists want to be recognized for their vision, not burdened with additional hurdles based on their gender or skin color. The same goes for tech founders.” The addressable market is significant: 2.5M full-time artists in the US contribute to its $29.9B annual art market.
The ATO Platform is built to function on the Polkadot blockchain via the Moonbeam parachain, which runs less cost to users, has fewer resources, and has the smallest carbon footprint of any major blockchains. ATO’s primary revenue streams are from the tagging and tracking physical and digital art and a 20% share of royalty collections made from registered artists and their artworks. The company’s average cost to record one piece of art on the blockchain is 6 US cents, compared to the average NFT mint cost of $129. As a result, recording work on ATO is 2,150% cheaper than minting on the Ethereum blockchain.
Collectors have had their eyes on the company since 2018, when ATO Gallery facilitated the world record sale for the most expensive physical artwork ever purchased with Bitcoin. “As we launch the ATO Platform, high-stakes, high-value collectors will continue to turn to us to track transactions and their art asset value appreciation securely,” noted Eldridge.
Art industry insiders and blockchain-savvy investors fund ATO Platform. Key teammates include Lisa Koonce – an advisor with 35 years of experience in the art industry; Monica Pajarin – a sales executive with 12 years in the art industry and gallery director experience; Bennet Grutman – Chair of the Board with over 40 years of experience in the art industry; blockchain governance prepared by Prysm Group – a financial advising firm, including the 2017 Nobel Prize winner in economics. The company’s Chief Technology Officer, Benjamin Stewart, aims to stay ahead of the curve of tech development. In addition, the company is powered by a robust list of blockchain engineers, artists liaisons, and accountants. What makes ATO unique is the same thing that turned the few successful 2016 FINTECTs into unicorns– the effort and attention needed to change the industry from within.
Eldridge predicts, “The market potential is massive. By acquiring 5% of the target market of contemporary artists, ATO’s earnings will exceed $270M per year by Year 7 post-launch.”
Follow the launch on ATO’s Instagram or visit the online platform.
Pritika Chowdhry
Counter-Memory Art
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