ARTCL digital art patronage
Unlocks new layers of ownership, curation, and innovation across the digital art economy
A Little History
Initially, the token was named $ARTU and was distributed during the first airdrop to digital art patrons.
Following an incident on December 24, 2025, one of the $ARTU smart contracts prepared for the second airdrop was compromised by an attacker via a backend vulnerability related to React Server Components.
As a result, the team decided to create a fork of the token at the state prior to the attack and relaunch it on the 5th of January 2026 under a new name $ARTCL, fully preserving all positions of holders and liquidity providers. Following the incident, we conducted a comprehensive security review and significantly strengthened our security architecture. Additional safeguards, access controls, and monitoring mechanisms have been implemented to prevent similar issues in the future.
All further development of the ecosystem will be carried out exclusively on the basis of the $ARTCL token. All documentation and websites have been updated accordingly.
$ARTCL is the sole and primary digital art patronage token within the ecosystem.
What is $ARTCL?
$ARTCL is a utility token on Base designed to power participation, access, and incentives across the decentralized digital art economy. It serves as a foundational asset for minting digital art indices, rewarding community activity, getting access to exclusive digital art in the future and sustaining protocol growth. $ARTCL is not a security, investment product, or currency. Participation in $ARTCL is subject to the Terms of Service.
Why Digital Art Patronage?
At its core, $ARTCL is designed not just as a utility asset but as a cultural statement, a way to empower those who contribute to the digital art movement. When users hold $ARTCL, they’re signaling support for artists, ecosystems that respect royalties, and the future of digital art as a public good.
The $ARTCL token introduces a new model of digital art patronage, one where holding, contributing, and participating in the ecosystem helps reward creative effort, fund innovation, and signal cultural value. By turning participation into measurable support, $ARTCL enables a more resilient, community-owned future for digital art.
$ARTCL also introduces ecosystem innovation by enabling the creation and trading of synthetic digital art indices. These indices allow users to gain exposure to broad segments of the digital art market without needing to buy individual artworks, fostering new forms of market access, collective value discovery, and liquidity across categories such as generative and AI art. This turns index tokens into cultural indicators that reflect community-curated relevance.
Index Tokens
The first AB500 digital art index token is launching soon.
Airdrop 1
The first airdrop claiming period concluded on Jun 1st 2025.
You qualify for the initial $ARTCL airdrop if:
You hold digital art pieces from collections listed on Artacle (Genart and AI art categories, and CryptoPunks) at least 1 day prior to the token distribution event on the 12th of May.
Or you hold Art Points received by holding digital art long-term, paying royalties on sales, and purchasing listed works that include royalties. Before the airdrop Art Points get burned, $ARTCL becomes available to claim.
Airdrop 2
$ARTCL airdrop 2 is coming, will be open for 1-2 weeks and bound to the AB500 index token minting event.
You qualify for the second $ARTCL airdrop if:
You hold Art Points. Before the airdrop Art Points get burned, $ARTCL becomes available to claim.
You hold $ARTCL (current APR is 100%).
You provide liquidity for $ARTCL (current APR is 300%).
More airdrops are on the way. If you love and collect digital art and follow original principles, you’re in. That’s what makes this the digital art patronage token.
How to Claim
Important: Make sure your receiving Base wallet has a small amount of ETH to sign the claim transaction. You can use any Base wallet you own, it doesn’t have to match your Ethereum address.
Smart Contracts
$ARTCL Token
Base
0x11f9B9eFb32B9b67Eb8b217Af391eA111BD7c505
Community vesting
Base
0x4619ddb8e33c832cBD031a4f96B75Fd1626C39f7
All smart contracts undergo thorough auditing by reputable third-party firms to identify vulnerabilities, ensure correctness, and minimize risk to users.
Importing $ARTCL to Your Wallet
To view and interact with your $ARTCL tokens using a wallet, for example, MetaMask, follow these steps:
Open your MetaMask extension and make sure you're connected to the Base network.
Scroll down to the Tokens tab and click three dots menu.
Select "Import tokens".
Choose Custom token.
Select Base Mainnet network and paste the $ARTCL contract address 0x11f9B9eFb32B9b67Eb8b217Af391eA111BD7c505.
MetaMask will auto-fill the token symbol and decimals.
Click "Next"
Click "Import".
You should now see your $ARTCL balance in MetaMask.
Tokenomics
$ARTCL will be a multi-chain token, initially launching on Base L2 and later expanding to Solana. The total supply of the token will be 2,711,201,612. This number has a special meaning for the community.
Tokens will be gradually and linearly unlocked (vested) over 2 years for all groups of recipients, with distribution to individual recipients within 3 years post-launch. Some of the unlocked but undistributed tokens will be held in designated treasuries, such as the Community Treasury and Contributor Treasury, until finally distributed. Despite the linear vesting schedule, early participants will be getting more $ARTCL through holding rewards, which will be factored into future distributions.
There are the following pools:
51% (1,382,712,822) of the tokens will be allocated to digital art community members. Of this, 11% will be airdropped and immediately claimable by eligible participants in the initial airdrop based on their art points and digital art holdings. The remaining 40% will be earned and airdropped post-launch over multiple iterations.
27.08% (734,224,842) will be allocated to past and future contributors including the development team and use case partners. At launch, 2% will be unlocked, with the remainder subject to a 6-month cliff period.
15% (406,680,241) will be allocated to founders and early sponsors and subject to a 6-month cliff period or longer depending on local regulations.
5.37% (145,560,081) will be designated for $ARTCL liquidity and reserved to support the launch and liquidity provisioning of each new index token.
1.55% (42,023,625) will be allocated to advisors and subject to a 6-month cliff period or longer depending on local regulations. This group, composed of highly experienced digital art experts, will assist in developing use cases and enhancing the utility of art points and $ARTCL, to ensure the benefits for the digital art economy.
Whitepaper
The $ARTCL Whitepaper provides an in-depth explanation of the token design, economic model and the role of index tokens in the broader digital art economy. Updated on the 11th of May 2025: Tokenomics updated. Updated on the 12th of May 2025: Refined wording.
$ARTU is an old name of the same token. Read A Little History.
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