Even in a decentralised world, the fact is that there are certain ‘real world’ processes and responsibilities that cannot be side-stepped, KYC is one of them - this is especially the case, as more regulation arrives in this space.

However, there are fundamental problems with existing (centralised) KYC solutions, including a high risk of error and effort and of course security of personal data. Here, we look at why KYC is important and how businesses that use blockchain tech, including Metacask, are looking at more efficient solutions to create easier access for members.

Firstly, there’s no way for financial service providers, banks or businesses – that offer high value assets stored on customers' behalf – to bypass Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. But with the advent of blockchain technologies, companies, including our own, are turning to better, more efficient KYC solutions that avoid having to collect and store personal information and still create easy and simple access to a service. This both benefits businesses and the end user.

As Nim, our co-founder and CTO explains, “As blockchain technology matures, many people are looking toward decentralised identity or self-sovereign identity as an ideal — people will gain control over their digital identities and they’ll avoid having to provide excessive, unwarranted information across multiple platforms and services.

How can blockchain improve on traditional KYC providers?

Typical KYC processes require users to upload various documents and IDs to a provider. However, businesses working toward being more decentralised shouldn’t need this extent of information, nor should they require to keep copies of a customer’s documents. Businesses are looking for ways to simply and credibly confirm that an account or digital wallet has been verified.

There are a multitude of ‘traditional’ KYC solutions. Each one comes with different complexities, capabilities and price points (usually very high). The major downside of all these operations is the storage requirement from a regulatory perspective. Often, KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti-money laundering) details have to be stored for a certain time period to meet reporting standards and in case there are irregularities. Here lies the problem. The major weakness in the system is that a company’s customer data is stored by multiple parties whose cybersecurity mechanisms may vary in effectiveness.

Using blockchain, the data stored is transparent. This means that on our marketplace, data including ownership details removes any ambiguity around ownership. That is music to collectors ears. When buying and selling on the blockchain, it creates a ‘provable’ trail of ownership that is audited and timestamped bringing more security and trust to the whole process.

We want to make our marketplace as easily accessible and compliant as possible. We allow users to create accounts using their social logins - Google, Facebook etc, with both card payments and crypto - which is especially important for collectors in China where cryptocurrencies are restricted using BitPay, the world’s largest provider of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments.

 to carry out KYC verification. Civic is a blockchain KYC solution, that simply gives us a clear yes or no (served as a token on-chain) as to whether users are approved - we don't need (or want) to hold users’ personal details. Saying that, for our customers who just wish to purchase and take delivery of a physical bottle, there is no requirement for KYC, it works as a simple ecommerce transaction. KYC just means verified customers can take advantage of collecting, trading and storage of their assets.

Read more about how blockchain enables our business from 

How blockchain improves KYC

For collectors involved in the world of Scotch whisky, there are two ongoing battles everyone knows about: the battle for age, and another for cost. For age, it’s purely a waiting game, however, there are lots of different factors involved when it comes to determining the cost of a bottle. Recent smashed records, eye watering bids and a new digital marketplace to more easily facilitate the changing of hands of these prized investments continue to rock the industry and send prices soaring.

That’s where we now find ourselves. At a pivotal point for the premium spirits industry as it embraces blockchain technology and sets a new record for the highest NFT whisky sale price of $2.3 million, sold on the 

So, what does it take to be a record-breaking Whisky? Here, we look at some of the most expensive whiskies found around the globe and what makes them special.


The whisky that set the record for the biggest NFT whisky sale was a rare 

 selling for $2.3 million in 2021 on Metacask, the digital 

. This was a double-size cask, a first-fill sherry butt distilled at The Macallan, holding about 600 bottles of 30-year-old whisky. It included a one-off digital art piece by artist Trevor Jones called “The Angel’s Share,” which is an uncompressed scan of Jones’ oil painting as well as an animated component.

Earlier in the year, Bonhams had appraised the cask without the artwork between $1.1 and $1.2 million. The bidding for this cask at auction, with the digital artwork, started at $1.75 million.

More whiskies and other premium spirits such as Tequilas are being added to the Metacask marketplace all the time. 

 to be the first to know about listings and exclusive offers. 


The good name of Macallan whisky means that they feature highly on this list of the most expensive and highly sought after spirits.

Valerio Adami 1926 Macallan – £825,000

The name comes from the Italian painter, Valerio Adami, who created the label. Made even rarer by the fact that this was one of 12 bottles, out of only 40 bottles drawn from the cask, with this particular label. A true fusion of art meets whisky. This bottle was distilled almost 100 years ago, in 1926 from cask #263 and bottled in 1986. The whisky was sold at auction in 2018 for a remarkable £825,000.

This particular cask was distilled in 1988 and would have produced about 534 70cl bottles of whisky. It was sold by Whisky Hammer in April 2022 for a record-breaking £915,500, which rose to £1,007,050 when the buyer’s premium was included.

The original owner paid just £5,000 for the cask and then forgot about it for 30 years while it accrued value.

Michael Dillon 1926 Macallan – £1.2million

Bottled in 1986, this 60-year aged whisky set a world record in 2018 when it sold at Christie’s for £1.2million.

Out of 40 bottles from this 1926 Macallan, just one was adorned with a stunning hand-painted label from Irish artist Michael Dillon. This makes it one of the world’s most expensive whiskies and one of the rarest bottles on this list. The painted label depicts the Easter Elchies House of The Macallan and the Scottish Highlands.

The Fine and Rare 1926 Macallan smashed its record price before it was even a year old, selling for £1.5million at Sotheby’s in 2019. It is currently the most expensive single bottle ever sold at auction.

One of just 14-bottles ever produced, this whisky was distilled in 1926 and bottled 60 years later.

A Guinness World Record holder for the largest bottle of whisky ever produced! Coming in at 1.8 metres in height, The Intrepid contains 311 litres of 1989 Macallan single malt whisky.

This is a collaboration between Rosewin Holdings and Fah Mai, and was designed to celebrate the achievements of 11 of the world’s most intrepid explorers, including Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Japanese distilleries setting new records

The sale of this 55-year-old Yamazaki set a world record at the time for the highest sale price for a single bottle of Japanese whisky, 10 times the estimated price!

The Yamazaki distillery was founded back in 1923 by Torii Shinjiro and is one of the most prestigious in Japan. Shinjiro wanted to produce a whisky that would be considered a real contender in the industry, so he hired Taketsuru Masakata as his factory director. Often referred to as the “Founder of Japanese Whisky”, Masakata studied the art of whisky-making in Scotland before returning to his home country.

This particular bottle was distilled in the 1960s and bottled in 2015. It features the characteristic amber hue imparted by the white oak and Mizunara oak casks that it was matured in.

Hanyu Ichiro’s Card Series – £796,220

This set of 54 bottles is believed to be one of only 4 remaining sets from the Hanyu distillery in Japan that closed its doors in 2000. The Grandson of the founder, Isouji Akuto, rescued the remaining 400 casks before it closed and then personally selected which whisky would be used for each playing card.

The set was auctioned off as a whole in 2019 for £796,220.

Our final two expensive whiskies on the list come with a little something sparkly as well.

The Emerald Isle Collection – £1.6million

The Emerald Isle Collection doesn’t just feature two bottles of rare 30-year-old whisky, it also comes with an 18k gold Fabergé egg and a bespoke timepiece. If that wasn’t enough there’s also two Cohiba Siglo VI Gran Reserva cigars in a custom humidor, obsidian whiskey stones, a bottle of Irish spring water, and, of course, a gold-plated pipette.

The sale of this remarkable set went to the Correa Family Foundation, a charity supporting children battling cancer.

Isabella’s Islay Original – £4.8million


How do you like your whisky? With a side of 5,000 diamonds, 250 rubies? We thought so!

We don’t really know a huge amount about the whisky inside this extravagant decanter, other than it reportedly has aromas of hot buttered toast and woodsmoke. We do however know that this truly unique set is made of over 5,000 diamonds, 250 rubies and almost two solid bars of white gold, covering a fine English crystal decanter.

We’re always on the lookout for rare and unique spirits to add to our 

, take a look at the current listings and sign up to be one of the first to hear about new auctions.

Take a look at our current collections available on the 

What are the most expensive whiskies in the world?

Irish whiskey distilleries and producers have a new ambition, to overtake Scotch whisky sales which currently dominate the global spirits market. And if Jameson, the world’s top-selling and fastest-growing Irish whiskey brand is anything to go by, their 

 reveal they’re stealing a march. After a record 2021-22, overall sales were up another 11 per cent, and US sales (which accounts for 40 per cent of its market), rose by 8 per cent. There are certainly many new Irish whiskey fans and collectors out there who are appreciating the ‘emerald spirit’ today. So, why is it proving so popular and can Irish whiskey compete with its popular Scottish cousin?


Irish whiskey, reputedly a favoured tipple of Elizabeth I and Russian Tsar Peter the Great, was one of the earliest distilled drinks in Europe, arising around the 12th century. The world’s first licensed whiskey distillery was founded in 1608 and called Northern Ireland’s Old Bushmills Distillery but Scotland soon caught up and started to out-produce Irish distilleries by the 18th century. The United States was the biggest market for Irish whiskey in the 20th century but the Irish War of Independence and prohibition in the United States greatly impacted the Irish whiskey industry, cutting off access to the two major markets for distribution - the UK and US. Whiskey production in Ireland went into decline and only a few distilleries were left as a result. Things started to pick up again in 1988 when French distillers, Pernod Ricard, bought Irish Distillers and Irish whiskey began to soar again. By 2015, Ireland exported more than 7 million cases of whiskey and since then, demand has surged with significant investment by major brands and new distilleries opening with new collections including the illustrious ‘The Grace’ collection by 

 available soon exclusively to collectors on our marketplace. This 13 year old Irish whiskey celebrates the life of infamous Irish pirate queen Grace O’Malley with each of the 501 hand painted bottles, forming a mural of the legendary pirate queen.

What’s the difference between Irish and Scotch whisky?

Firstly, in the name. Irish whiskey is always with an ‘e’.

The difference is also in the distillation process. Irish whiskey, like Scottish whisky, must be aged for a minimum of three years but whereas Scottish whisky must be aged in oak barrels, Irish doesn’t have to be (but usually is!). There are fewer regulations than its Scottish counterpart and it may contain an amount of unmalted barley. Generally, Irish producers will triple distil their whiskey, whereas Scotch is usually distilled twice.

Does this affect the taste? The extra step in the Irish process claims to result in a lighter drink which is typically smoother in flavour. But not everyone agrees and of course, there are exceptions. Some Scottish single malts use the triple distillation process and one Islay Single Malt Scotch whisky, Bruichladdich X4, is distilled four times.

Ingredients also play a part in the difference between the two. Scotch whisky can come in three forms, generally — single malt, single grain, and blended scotch. Irish whiskey comes in single malt, single pot still, single grain, and blended forms. Three of those four are the same as Scottish whiskies but where Ireland is unique is with the single pot still form. The difference between single malt and single pot still is that single malts are made from 100% malted barley and single pot still is made with both malted and unmalted (green) barley. It’s all down to personal taste and preference.


If Scotch whisky is your tipple, take a look at the exclusive 

 on our marketplace. These 250 limited edition bottles of 35 year old blended Scotch grain whisky have been blended by award winning master blender Ian MacMillan. The accompanying artwork to this collection speaks to Scotland’s distinct distilling process with a visual representation of the 'marrying' process of various malts, grains and Scottish water used in the creation of the whisky.

Take a look at more collections available on our 

Why is Irish Whiskey attracting a new set of collectors

Using the Metacask marketplace to buy, collect and trade premium casks and bottles has just become that bit easier with the introduction of 

 on the Metacask platform. This month we’ve added crypto payment processor BitPay making it even simpler and more secure for cryptocurrency users to use leading coins on our marketplace including Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Polygon (MATIC), Apecoin (APE), 4 USD-pegged stable coins DAI, GUSD, USDP, and USDC), and 1 EURO-pegged stablecoin (EUROC).

Making the spirits market more accessible and secure

The BitPay partnership is the next step in our strategy to make the premium spirits market even more accessible, both for those using cryptocurrencies and for collectors who want to trade in investor-grade spirits. In a further bid to ensure there are no barriers to purchasing on the marketplace, we also now support card payments and we already enable customers to create an account using social logins inc. Facebook and Google.


The demographic of people collecting whisky is changing and we want to be able to offer a variety of secure payment options for people using our platform to grow their collections. There’s now a huge variety of different whiskies available that appeal to a much larger group of people. For instance, Whisky is increasingly appealing to women. According to Kantar data, British women consumed 15% more whisky in 2020 than in 2010, and now make up more than a third of whisky drinkers.


Whilst new variations are coming to the market each year, many varieties are becoming rarer and rarer and even disappearing altogether. Collectors are keen to get their hands on rare casks and bottles as once they’re gone, they’re gone for good. Our knowledge of the industry ensures that only the most highly-sought-after spirits make it to our marketplace each month - take a look at the 


As Nim Siriwardana, co-founder of Metacask explains, “Our partnership with BitPay is part of our ongoing strategy to digitise the sale and ownership of premium spirits and make the market more accessible for all. Metacask makes collecting investor-grade spirits secure, quick, and verifiable, using NFTs on the blockchain to prove and track ownership. Our goal is to deliver transparency in these assets’ provenance, possession, and value.

The days of slow paper trails (if you’re lucky) are history and the BitPay partnership only advances our goal to make the industry more efficient and accessible. Customers buying through Metacask own the physical cask or bottle with an accompanying digital deed as proof of ownership, meaning no middlemen, no brokers, and no opportunities for admin errors, missing assets, or duplicate sales. Now with the addition of BitPay on our platform, we’re giving our users the most trusted crypto payments option there is.”

Security is vital. Every user who buys and stores an asset on our platform is verified. Buying and selling on the blockchain is anonymous, however, we ensure ‘Know Your Customer’ ( KYC) via a third party which is a mandatory process of identifying and verifying a person’s identity when opening an account with the intention to store casks or bottles on Metacask.


Read more about opening an account and payment options on Metacask

BitPay now available on Metacask

In 2021, a 1991 Macallan cask sold for a record-breaking 

 on what was then considered to be a new kind of online whisky marketplace. Fast forward a couple of years and the 1991 Macallan cask that was sold on our platform 

 not only made history, but kick started the trajectory for whisky’s digital rise. A lot has happened since and you will no doubt have heard people talking about whisky NFTs, blockchain and the potential for whisky’s digital future.

Here, we took some time with our co-founder, Nim, who some have described as the ‘grain-to-bottle’ tech pioneer, to break down what’s happened in the two years since the 1991 Macallan sold. We also look at how the whisky industry’s digital transformation benefits those looking to collect rare, investor-grade spirits and importantly, how to get started.


Collecting rare spirits is nothing new, they have long been sought after and for good reason. But the way people can now do it has changed dramatically in the last few years thanks to technology. Barriers have been broken down and the industry is experiencing a long overdue digital transformation making it easier to buy, collect and sell on secure platforms such as Metacask.

Crucially for whisky, it is a commodity that improves with age, and unlike wine it does not go off when it’s bottled as the higher alcohol percentage preserves it. And with some 22 million casks still lying in Scotland maturing in warehouses waiting to be discovered, many in the know think that whisky’s time hasn’t nearly peaked yet.

Whisky in particular is ideal for collectors. It has a track record of appreciating in price, not to mention being classed as a ‘wasting asset’ which means there is no capital gains tax to be paid when it is sold in the UK. So far so good. But, if you’ve tried to collect whisky in the past, you’ll know that it can be a challenging process and you’re reliant on brokers to prove ownership of casks and keep accurate records (often paper-based), which brings an element of risk many serious collectors can do without.

With an industry that’s steeped in history and craftsmanship, you expect some legacy challenges, but ownership shouldn’t be one of them. Proof of ownership with ‘digital deeds’, and the speed in which ownership can be transferred, needed to be more in keeping with the way other luxury assets were traded, and that’s where Metacask comes in.

Why did the whisky industry need to change?

Handling the ownership of casks can be laborious. It’s usually a three-way transaction between the seller, broker and private buyer which is often done by sending letters in the post, not even emails, typically. Brokers take ownership of a cask, then issue a proof of ownership certificate to the buyer. But the problem lies in that this proof of ownership certificate is really only recognised by the broker, not the warehouse which is storing the cask. In fact, typically, the warehouse only stores the name of the broker associated with the cask they are storing - not individual owners. Should the broker go out of business, the warehouse only has the name of the broker on the cask - not the specific owner. For collectors, this is a concern. It raises serious questions over proof of ownership.

Good investments happen when collectors can establish ownership of rare, highly desirable products whether that be art, jewellery or in this case whisky. Using the blockchain to store data securely, including ownership details, removes ambiguity around ownership. That’s music to collectors ears.

Owners can prove ownership easily with the non-fungible token (NFT) that represents the physical product, ie. the cask itself. NFTs are simply the enabler to allow for greater accessibility and proof of ownership.

Buying and selling on the blockchain is simple and secure.

To own anything, you first need a digital wallet - we take care of that behind the scenes, so users don't have to worry about the techy stuff, they can simply use their social account or email address, and we take care of the rest. When you own something, there’s a token that represents the physical assets, which in this case is a cask (or a bottle). The token is added to the users’ account as a permanent record of the purchase and ownership.

Set up a Metacask account using email, social account or create a wallet

Collect assets and pay using crypto (bitpay), or credit card

KYC only required if storing physical assets

Buying and selling on the blockchain is anonymous, however, we ensure ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) via a third party which is the mandatory process of identifying and verifying a person’s identity when opening an account to buy and store casks and bottles. Users who simply want to buy a bottle don’t need to go through this process, they simply buy directly from us and a token is dropped in their account.

In other words, to store an asset, you need to be vetted and verify your account. This ensures customers are genuinely who they claim to be.

For many, it’s the romance of collecting a hand-crafted, super-rare cask that appeals. See our current listings 

. A cask that has a story behind it and has been crafted with care and love. The fact that technology facilitates the purchase and removes some of the hassle of trading is a big bonus and makes it more accessible for everyone. People can own a bit of history, whether they decide to bottle and sell, store or drink, they can prove ownership on the blockchain.

Read more about why demand for whisky is high.

Start your collection today by signing up for a Metacask account and browse our listings.

The digital world of whisky collecting

A pivotal point in the spirits industry. This is the moment many in the industry have been waiting for. Proof that the spirits industry is heading down a new path as it embraces blockchain technology and sets a new record for the biggest NFT whisky sale to date.

And the whisky that set the record? A rare 

 selling for $2.3 million. This double-size cask, a first-fill sherry butt distilled at The Macallan, which currently holds about 600 bottles of 30-year-old whisky, was sold at auction on the Metacask, the digital 

 for investor-grade spirits. It included a digital asset from artist Trevor Jones called “The Angel’s Share,” which is an uncompressed scan of Jones’ oil painting as well as an animated component.

Earlier this year, Bonhams had appraised the cask without the artwork between $1.1 and $1.2 million. The bidding for this cask at auction, with the digital artwork, started at $1.75 million.

As Nim Siriwardana, co-founder of Metacask says, “When you buy this NFT, you are now the owner of the cask. It’s a slightly different concept to what you find with art, where often the asset itself is the NFT. Here the NFT is also the contract, or digital deed, that you own the cask.”

The digital deed allows for ownership of the 1991 Macallan Butt to be represented on the blockchain, and is aimed at replacing the traditional Proof of Ownership Certificate. For this Cask, a Delivery Order will be executed to transfer the Cask ownership to the new buyer at either the Macallan Distillery or another warehouse of the buyer’s choosing.

The benefits of selling the cask as an NFT are many. The NFT can prove the provenance from the original creator, and keep track in the blockchain every time it changes hands.

In the current non-techy system, brokers keep track of privately-owned whisky casks and errors in

 records are common and sometimes, brokers can double-sell assets

. Every cask sold by NFT has a unique reference number that includes information about how it has changed hands, where it was distilled, even when it was last tested by distilleries or experts.

“This information is in the metadata of the NFT itself,” Siriwardana said. “It would be difficult to execute a double sale sort of scam, because it would be easy for a broker to check this information to make sure they are not selling someone else’s cask.”

Whisky and artwork combine to create something truly unique

For the sale of this digital deed, Metacask commissioned Trevor Jones to create the accompanying artwork. Trevor has been working at the intersection of art and technology for over a decade and in the last 16 months has had record-breaking drops on the top four NFT marketplaces - SuperRare, Known Origin, MakersPlace and Niftygateway. His work is highly sought after throughout the NFT art collector community, making him the perfect artist for this project.

The artwork, entitled The Angel’s Share, comprises two items (1-1 special high-resolution uncompressed scan of the oil painting, and a special 1-1 animation which points out the interesting elements of the work).

The buyer owns the cask, and in addition also receives the digital artwork as part of the digital deed. Due to the nature of the work, the decision to include the high resolution uncompressed image is to provide the purchaser the full experience of the oil - which cannot be conveyed in the current limited compressed formats supported by NFT infrastructure.

For backward compatibility, there is a low resolution image also linked which displays the label in existing wallet infrastructure for example.

What this means is that the buyer experiences the full uncompressed image with appropriate display screens - while sipping on a fine single malt!

Trevor Jones describes the artwork: ‘The Angel's Share” celebrates Scotland and the enduring talents of whisky production through an abstract and painterly depiction of Macallan’s 1991 Cask #12612. This artwork combines a variety of elements that represent the rare cask including the ceiling of Macallan’s distillery, the heads and wings of two angels, the initial volume of the whisky, the cask silhouette and the shape of the copper pot stills.”

 and why this industry-first made history. Keep up to date on upcoming auctions on the marketplace and follow our social channels.

What are the most expensive whiskies in the world?

Why is Irish Whiskey attracting a new set of collectors

BitPay now available on Metacask

The digital world of whisky collecting

Metacask sells 1991 Macallan cask for £2.3m

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