Why Trevor Jones Is Releasing a New NFT From a Scottish Castle

Scot­tish-Cana­di­an artist Trevor Jones, cre­ator of the wild­ly suc­cess­ful open edi­tion NFT, Bit­coin Angel (2021), is host­ing a cryp­to ball at Scotland’s sto­ried Stir­ling Cas­tle this summer.

The cas­tle soirée, set to take place on July 30, is an exclu­sive event for hodlers (cryp­to par­lance for “hold­ers”) of Jones’s NFT, which he based on Gian Loren­zo Bernini’s Ecsta­sy of Saint Tere­sa (1652). It depicts an angel thrust­ing an arrow into the heart of Tere­sa, set against a gold Bit­coin token. 

In Feb­ru­ary of 2021, Jones set what was then a record for the most expen­sive open-edi­tion NFT ever when Nifty Gate­way sold 4,157 edi­tions of Bit­coin Angel at $777 apiece in just over sev­en minutes.

For the fete, Jones has booked a carousel of enter­tain­ment, includ­ing the super­star DJ Don Dia­blo, Dusty the Magi­cian, and even a con­fes­sion­al booth where Jones is ask­ing vis­i­tors to con­fess their “cryp­to crimes.”

“Maybe you’ve made some unwise invest­ments when caught up in the FOMO of the moment,” Jones told Art­net News. “Per­haps you’ve lost your nerve when a sol­id asset’s val­ue briefly dips. Or you may have jumped into the lat­est dubi­ous PFP project because some­one on Twit­ter told you to.”

“None of us are per­fect in the cryp­to world, but there are some sins we just don’t like to admit to in pub­lic. At the Cas­tle Par­ty we offer you the chance for for­give­ness of your crypto-crimes.”

Trevor Jones painting.

Jones’s sto­ry is a remark­able one in the cryp­to space. After a tumul­tuous exit from west­ern Cana­da he moved to Edin­burgh where he worked as a wait­er at a Hard Rock Cafe. Then, after he end­ed a rela­tion­ship and fell into with depres­sion, he found his way to art school. In 2021, his viral image of Bit­coin Angel launched him to cryp­to fame.

Now, Jones is known the world over for tak­ing famous art-his­tor­i­cal pieces and adding a cryp­to twist. Anoth­er piece, Bit­coin Bull (2020), took inspi­ra­tion from Picas­so, with Jones adding to it con­tem­po­rary icons includ­ing Bit­coin and Twit­ter logos. That piece sold to cryp­to col­lec­tor Pablo Rodriguez-Frail for $55,555.55.

“I stud­ied art his­to­ry and fine art, so when I came out of school I was very much con­nect­ed to the past,” Jones said. “But at the same time, I start­ed to paint QR codes onto my paint­ings around 2012 or 2013… I think the cryp­to com­mu­ni­ty, despite often over-promis­ing and under-deliv­er­ing when it comes to things like PFPs, has actu­al­ly giv­en my work and life new meaning.” 

Stir­ling Cas­tle. Pho­to by Julien Scavini.

Guests of the cas­tle par­ty, which is now ful­ly booked, will have access to a unique NFT that will be made avail­able only at the event. 

Since it was built on the misty hills of Scot­land, the Stir­ling Cas­tle has been the site of numer­ous momen­tous his­tor­i­cal events. From William Wal­lace and Robert the Bruce seiz­ing back the cas­tle from invad­ing Eng­lish armies dur­ing the 14th cen­tu­ry Scot­tish Wars of Inde­pen­dence, to the Jaco­bite upris­ings of the 18th cen­tu­ry, the cas­tle has played a piv­otal role in the his­to­ry of this tena­cious island nation. 

“The idea for the cas­tle par­ty came about on Twit­ter,” Jones said. “I start­ed to think about what to do next, and some­one replied to one of my tweets and said you should have a cas­tle party.” 

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