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NCCA accept world’s first cryptocurrency philanthropy to an arts institution

The Northern Centre for Contemporary Art (NCCA) in Darwin is heralding a big step in the cultural philanthropic scene as it becomes the world’s first public art gallery to accept cryptocurrency.

25 Aug 2021

Celina Lei

Visual Arts

NCCA Director Petrit Abazi (right) with cryptocurrency philanthropist Dr Prash Puspanathan (left). Image supplied.

Over three years, art collector Dr Prash Puspanathan, who is also the founder of Australia’s largest cryptocurrency brokerage firm Caleb and Brown, will commit three carbon-neutral bitcoins to the gallery in philanthropic funding.

Puspanathan will guarantee a minimum of $140,000 to NCCA, pledging that amount should the bitcoins decrease in value. This makes it the arts centre’s largest single private donation in their 30-year history.

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Celina Lei

Celina Lei is an arts writer and editor at ArtsHub. She acquired her M.A in Art, Law and Business in New York with a B.A. in Art History and Philosophy from the University of Melbourne. She has previously worked across global art hubs in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York in both the commercial art sector and art criticism. She took part in drafting NAVA’s revised Code of Practice - Art Fairs and was the project manager of ArtsHub’s diverse writers initiative, Amplify Collective. Celina is based in Naarm/Melbourne.