Andy Warhol captured the art market’s commercialism with his colourful silk-screen dollar signs. “Good business is the best art,” he quipped. Were he alive today, bitcoin symbols might be filling his works instead, as a sign of the times. The auction market has recently been embracing crypto with gusto in a bid to bring in younger, more tech-savvy clients.

In an auction of AI-generated art last month, Christie’s, the world’s second-largest auction house, accepted crypto on most lots. Sotheby’s, the largest, accepted crypto on all lots for…