In 2015, five months before the emergence of Ethereum, Sarah Meyohas minted her first 200 Bitchcoins. The blockchain-verified tokens were intended to operate as art as much as digital currency, which collectors could hold, sell, or trade for art by Meyohas—a conceptual transaction that tied the speculative worth of cryptocurrency with the subjective value of art. The young artist (and Wharton Business School grad) launched Bitchcoin at a gallery show where visitors could drop Bitchcoin for her photographic works, with a press release that cheekily trumpeted: “Investing in Bitchcoin is investing in Meyohas.”

However incisive, Bitchcoin could very well have been a low-key conceptual endeavor, if not for the sensation NFTs set off in 2020. Then again, amid the resurfacing of historic blockchain-backed works, Meyohas’s name was rarely invoked in a space and marketplace dominated by top-selling, always-online male artists such as Beeple.

But no more. Last month, the Centre Pompidou announced the acquisition of two Bitchcoins, which are joining 17 other NFTs being acquired by the institution in the first-ever such acquisition by a French national museum. These other works include an Autoglyph, a CryptoPunk, new works by Jill Magid and Jonas Lund, and historic digital art by Robness and Fred Forest.

“It’s doubly exciting that my first museum acquisition can also be a historic one,” Meyohas told Artnet News. “I’m thrilled for each of the 12 other artists involved as well.”

The crypto artworks join the contemporary art museum’s sizable collection of new-media works, which the Pompidou has been amassing since the 1970s. For curators Macella Lista and Philippe Bettinelli, who are overseeing the Pompidou’s NFT endeavors, the acquisition entirely squares with a museum dedicated to “addressing the impulses of innovation,” they told Artnet News over email.

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