The first tweet of Twitter, “The Jack Dorsey NFT” auctioned and it would be a huge understatement to claim it was underwhelming…
It’s easy to focus on the big successes when you just view NFTs through news headlines. In 2017, CryptoPunks, the first NFT collection, was free to produce and it sells for over $150,000 today. People who bought Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs at $250 a year ago are holding onto an NFT that could be sold for over $300,000. However, like with any speculative market, the NFT industry is rife with losses. There are plenty of them.
Last year, crypto entrepreneur Sina Estavi purchased Jack Dorsey’s first tweet as an NFT for $2.9 million. Last week, Estavi put the tweet on a seven-day auction, promising to give half of the projected $50 million sales to charity if it was sold. CoinDesk’s highest offer was $280 (0.09 Ethereum).
The bids for the Jack Dorsey NFT auction are increasing though
Estavi can accept or reject the bids offered, which is how NFT marketplace OpenSea works. He said he’s open to more bids. The highest bid at this time is $4,631 (1.5 Ethereum).
When the first tweet by Jack Dorsey, which sold for $2.9 million last year, was released as an NFT, it failed to attract interest.
The sale closed with only seven bids ranging from 0.0019 to 0.09 ETH ($6 to $280) in contrast to the owner’s request of $48 million. The bidding process isn’t over, and there’s still time for late bids to increase the price. It’s already increased by over ten times from the end-of-auction bid of $280. It appears unlikely to reach $2.9 million, let alone Estavi’s $50 million goal. “I set a deadline that had already passed, but I may accept it if I get a fantastic offer,” says Estavi.
For the most part, nonfungible tokens’ success perplexes people. The 2.9 million dollars for an NFT is the peak surprise for individuals who are not in the know. NFTs are like deeds to real assets: It’s not about the asset itself; it’s a receipt demonstrating ownership. That may make sense for an NFT created by a musician and sold to a consumer, but it makes no sense at all for a tweet. If Dorsey removes the post or Twitter deletes it, the NFT would be tied to an asset that no longer exists.
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Those hoping that this will be the harbinger of doom for NFTs may be disappointed. Over $2.4 billion in nonfungible tokens changed hands on OpenSea last month. When Estavi first bought the NFT, the firm’s April volume was $96 million.
Many blockchain supporters believe that the current state of NFTs, which is dominated by wealthy investors purchasing and reselling items as status symbols, is the initial phase of the technology. They suggest it’s comparable to the internet in the late 1990s: A proof of concept as much as anything else. Many people are interested in the Metaverse, even if no one knows what the next stage of technology will be. Many individuals are already investing millions of dollars on land and items in the Metaverse, despite the fact that no one knows what it is.
