200 BTC
200 BTC by Kuno Goda

"Andy Warhol connected money and art. I thought digital currency deserves the same artistic exploration... A banknote is a piece of paper we assign a certain value to. So are artworks. So are digital currencies. Minus the paper."

— Artist Statement, April 2014 (Bitcoin price: $457)

200 BTC

A groundbreaking artwork by Kuno Goda that bridges the traditional art world with the digital currency revolution. Created as an homage to Andy Warhol's "200 One Dollar Bills," the painting is demonstrably the first piece of crypto art, with unparalleled provenance dating back to Bitcoin's early days. It stands as the first contemporary artwork dedicated to Bitcoin, predating the NFT movement by years.

Kuno Goda’s ‘200 Bitcoins’ daringly reimagines Warhol’s ‘200 One Dollar Bills,’ propelling its exploration of value and mass production into the digital frontier. By replacing the iconic dollar bill with Bitcoin—a decentralized and intangible currency—Goda challenges our perceptions of wealth, authenticity, and the commodification of art in an era dominated by virtual transactions. This work masterfully bridges Pop Art’s critique of consumer culture with the disruptive ethos of cryptocurrency, questioning the materiality of value when code becomes currency. ‘200 Bitcoins’ is more than a visionary piece disguised as homage; it’s a provocative interrogation of how technology reshapes our understanding of art and economy. It captures a pivotal moment in human history where the tangible and intangible collided, compelling us to reconsider the essence of ownership and the future of art and money. At a time when Bitcoin's total value nears two trillion dollars, the piece is more relevant than ever -- it doesn’t just echo Warhol’s inquiries—it amplifies them for a new era, making it *the* indispensable artifact of crypto art history.
— Peter Vessenes, co-founder Bitcoin Foundation

Press & Recognition

"As a lifelong fan of Andy Warhol I knew that he connected money and art in his 1962 Dollar Bill series... I thought Bitcoin deserves the same and so I created '200 Bitcoins'."

— Kuno Goda, The Guardian, April 2014

"Bitcoin may not strike most people as a subject for art, but it did to Kuno Goda... The Hamburg-based artist, inspired by both the cryptocurrency and the work of Andy Warhol, created '200 Bitcoins' in late 2013, a 23.6 x 47.2 inch print on canvas in which appear 200 bitcoin logos."

— The Wall Street Journal, April 2014

"Just as Andy Warhol turned dollar bills into pop art, putting 200 images of them on canvas, Goda's work represents one of the first artistic treatments of cryptocurrency."

— San Francisco Chronicle, April 2014

"Warhol once said that one should rather frame and hang the money itself on the wall than buying art with it."

— The Guardian, April 2014

About the Artist

Kuno Goda, a Germany-based artist born in the GDR in the 1980s, combines his engineering background with artistic vision to create works that explore the intersection of technology and art. The name itself is a pseudonym, partially inspired by Konrad Zuse, the creator of the first working computer who painted under the name "Kuno See".