NFT shame
He wanted to auction off the first tweet for $50 million. The highest bid was $250
The first tweet should make millions
© Twitter screenshot
The topic of NFT has seen incredible hype in recent months – and has been seen by many as a get-rich-quick way. Now an auction lets this dream ruthlessly explode.
NFT tokens and digital works traded through them are repeatedly traded in the crypto scene as a fantastic investment and a shortcut to get rich quick. This photo has just been destroyed with a crash. The first tweet, which was purchased for millions last year, not only brought in the expected profits – but not even a ten-thousandth of the purchase price.
The first NFT auction made headlines. A good year ago, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey decided to auction off the first-ever tweet in the form of an NFT – that is, a “Non Fungible Toke”. Bitcoin technology blockchain-based tokens allow clear regulation of ownership of a digital asset. The auction of the tweet was one of the technology’s milestones: with a price of $2.9 million, it achieved one of the first major auction successes.
Dramatic fall in value
Now new owner Sina Estavi wanted to turn the tweet into money. And had high expectations. “I have decided to resell the first tweet. I will donate half of the proceeds (at least $25 million),” he announced on Twitter last Thursday. Yesterday Wednesday, the auction on the Opensea platform ended. And it turned out a little differently than Estavi had hoped.
Because instead of pouring more than 50 million dollars (about 45 million euros) and therefore a big profit in the coffers, as expected, the auction offers were much more modest. By the end of the period, there had only been seven bids, all ranging from $6 to $277.
Compared to “Coin Desk”, Estavi was confident. He would then just keep the NFT, he told the site. However, he still seems to have hope. “The deadline has passed, but if there is a good offer, I am happy to take it,” he added. But he shouldn’t expect too much to win. The bids that have been added since then are certainly higher, but at $6222, even the highest bid is well below last year’s first purchase price.
How does the market react?
The embarrassment of the auction should definitely ring alarm bells for other NFT supporters. Digital tokens are traded in some parts of the crypto scene as a kind of auto-runner, which could only increase in value. The highlight was the sale of the work “Everydays – The First 5000 Days” by the artist Beeple, which sold for 58 million euros. Skeptics, on the other hand, pointed out from the outset that the valuations of traded tokens such as the Bored Apes Yacht Club have so far been completely speculative and reminiscent of the dot-com bubble or tulip mania. In both historic cases, the promises of extreme profits had also sparked a gigantic investor race before collapsing virtually worthless.
Source: Opensea, CoinDesk