How do auctions work?
In an auction, the artist sets a starting price and you bid against other collectors. When the sale ends, the highest bidder wins the auction and pays for the item.
Bidding with different payment methods
Credit or debit card
When you bid and select credit/debit card as a payment option, we place a temporary hold on this amount to make sure you have sufficient funds.
If you get outbid, we immediately release this hold. Most banks show this release of funds after a few seconds, but in some cases it can take a few days.
Ethereum, Tezos or Solana
If you get outbid, funds will be returned to your account balance within a few seconds. Account balance can be put towards additional bids, or you can withdraw it to an external wallet.
Cryptocurrency payments can take a while, especially if the network is busy. If you're planning to bid within the last minute or two, we recommend using an alternative payment method to be safe.
Prepaid Bitcoin
To bid with Bitcoin, you'll need to deposit it in advance from the Account page.
Once the deposit transaction has been completed the funds will appear in your account balance, which you can use to bid.
If you get outbid, funds will be returned to your account balance within a few seconds.
Please note that Bitcoin transactions can take over an hour to complete, so we recommend making deposits well in advance.
Account balance
If you have account balance from selling artworks on Verse, you can use this to bid.
If your balance is less than the value of the bid you'd like to make, you can top it up using another payment method when you go to enter your bid.
Time extensions
If a bid is placed within the last few minutes of an auction, additional time will be added, to give other collectors time to submit additional bids.
Automatic bidding
During bidding you are able to specify if you'd like to use "automatic bidding". Automatic bidding means that the system will bid slightly above the highest bid to keep you in the lead up to the maximum amount you specify. Using automatic bidding you can specify the maximum amount you are willing to bid without having to worry about being at computer through the duration of the sale. During the bid you will be charged the amount you specify and you will be refunded immediately after being outbid as in a regular auction.
Example
Say that the current bid on the auction is $800. If you make automatic bid for $1000, the system will bid $810. If another collector proceeds to make a bid of $900, Verse system will automatically bid $910 on your behalf. If another collector proceeds to bid $1100, they will end up outbidding you and will be leading the auction.
Minimum bid amount
From | Minimum bid increase |
|---|---|
$0 | $10 |
$600 | $25 |
$1,500 | $50 |
$3,000 | $100 |
$5,000 | $250 |
$10,000 | $500 |
$25,000 | $1,000 |
$50,000 | $2,000 |
$100,000 | $5,000 |
Settling an auction
If you win an auction, the payment method you selected when submitting your bid is charged automatically.
Updated on: 19/06/2025
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