New York, New York - To make a splash in the stormy seas of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, you need something big. Like, $11.7 million big.

That's exactly what German artist Niclas Castello brought to the table. He made a 410-pound cube of 24-karat gold, measuring a little over a foot on each side, and put it in Central Park for a day to push his cryptocurrency and upcoming NFT launch.

The art piece Castello's Cube was custom forged in an ancient bell foundry in Switzerland, and shipped to Central Park where it had its own security detail.

Then, the Cube went to a private Wall Street dinner party, and its current whereabouts are unknown.

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The German artist took heavy fire from people who pointed out that putting millions of dollars-worth of gold in Central Park, which many people call home, is as tone-deaf as using the art piece to promote a cryptocurrency and NFTs.

Since the amount of gold used couldn't make a completely solid cube, the piece could also be a tidy metaphor for the crypto and NFT bubble. It's shiny, and can make some people very rich, but if you look a little closer, it seems to be hollow.

Castello funded his art project by pre-selling his cryptocurrency Castello Coin ($CAST) to buy the gold needed for his project from a Swiss bank, according to the Castello Coin's white papers.

At least 500 investors forked over a total of $13.7 million to get their hands on Castello Coins for an average of $0.23 per coin, and now $CAST is trading 95% higher. Coin holders can jump on the artist's NFT launch on February 21.

Castello will still be sitting on millions of dollars of gold if the crypto tech bubble pops, thanks to the crowdfunding that backed his art piece.