The bidding war for Jack Dorsey’s first tweet ‘just setting up my twttr’ heats up as Malaysian Bitcoin investor offers $2.5MILLION for CEO’s 2006 post
- Mr Dorsey listed his first tweet on the ‘Valuables by Cent’ marketplace
- Here posts can be sold as unique digital signatures called ‘non-fungible tokens’
- ‘Valuables’ likened owning a tweet to purchasing an autographed baseball card
- Blockchain system firm Bridge CEO Hakan Estavi is currently the highest bidder
- He outbid cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, who had offered $2 million
- The auction will continue until Mr Dorsey elects to accept the then highest offer
Bidding for Twitter’s first tweet, ‘just setting up my twttr’, is heating up as a Malaysian Bitcoin investor has offered $2.5 million for the 2006 post by CEO Jack Dorsey.
Hakan Estavi — CEO of blockchain system firm Bridge — has outbid other prospective buyers including Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.
On Saturday, Mr Sun had been winning with a bid of $2 million (£1.4 million).
Mr Dorsey listed his tweet on the marketplace ‘Valuables by Cent’, where posts are sold via digital signatures called ‘non-fungible tokens’ (NFTs), back in December.
However, it was only when the Twitter co-founder tweeted a link to the auction listing on Friday that bidding really took off — reaching $88,888.88 within minutes.
On ‘Valuables’, auctions are run without a time limit, meaning that Mr Dorsey may choose when to accept the currently highest offer, if at all.
Should an offer be accepted, 95 per cent of the profits from the sale will go to Mr Dorsey, and the remainder to Valuables by Cent.
Mr Estavi has bid for other tweets on the Valuables marketplace — including those by Burger King, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, comedian Joe Rogan and actress Lindsay Lohan.
Bidding for Twitter’s first tweet, ‘just setting up my twttr’ (inset), is heating up as a Malaysian Bitcoin investor has offered $2.5 million for the 2006 post by CEO Jack Dorsey, pictured
Hakan Estavi (pictured) — CEO of blockchain system firm Bridge — has outbid other prospective buyers including Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.
Dorsey’s 15-year old tweet is one of the most famous tweets ever on the platform and could attract bidders to pay a high price for the piece of ‘digital memorabilia’.
Launched three months ago, Valuables compares the buying of tweets with that of an autographed baseball card.
‘There is only one unique signed version of the tweet and if the creator agrees to sell, you can own it forever,’ they explained.
A tweet’s buyer will get an autographed digital certificate, signed using cryptography, that includes the metadata of the original tweet, according to the Valuables website.
Regardless of the purchase, the original tweet will continue to be publicly available on the Twitter website.
NFTs, sometimes pronounced ‘nifties’, are a unique digital token encrypted with the artist’s signature which verifies its ownership and authenticity and is permanently attached to the piece.
They are similar to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum in that they live on blockchain networks — a decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions of digital assets.
Unlike traditional cryptocurrencies, however, NFTs are non-fungible, meaning that one cannot be exchanged for another. The digital assets have collectors value, and can represent items including still images, GIFs, videos, music and more.
Mr Dorsey listed his tweet on the marketplace ‘Valuables by Cent’, where posts are sold via digital signatures called ‘non-fungible tokens’ (NFTs), back in December. However, it was only when the Twitter co-founder tweeted a link to the auction listing on Friday (as pictured) that bidding really took off — reaching $88,888.88 within minutes
On Saturday, Mr Sun (pictured) was winning the auction with a bid of $2 million (£1.4 million)
While NFTs have been around for years, their popularity has grown rapidly in recent weeks thanks to a few which garnered very high price tags.
In the past seven days alone, NFTs have generated $45.2million in sales — while grabbing attention from top investors including Mark Cuban.
Since February 14, an artist named Pest Supply has netted more than $1million auctioning off his NFTs featuring Banksy-style graffiti, including one piece that sold for 60 Ethereum coins (ETH), or about $100,000 (£72,334).
A whole new venue for NFT sales opened last month when Christie’s became the first major auction house to put up a piece of digital artwork carrying a token. The piece entitled ‘Everydays — The First 5000 Days’ (pictured) comprises all of the works that an American digital artist known as Beeple has made over the course of 13 years
On February 19, a one-of-a-kind digital rendition of the Nyan Cat meme sold for 300 ETH, or about $590,000, in an online auction.
Two weeks ago a man paid $208,000 for a NFT with a clip of LeBron James dunking through an auction by NBA Top Shot, which mints basketball highlights into NFTs.
A whole new venue for NFT sales opened last month when Christie’s became the first major auction house to put up a piece of digital artwork carrying a token.
The piece entitled ‘Everydays — The First 5000 Days’ comprises all of the works that an American digital artist known as Beeple has made over the course of 13 years.
NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS (NFTs)
What is a NFT?
A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a unique digital token encrypted with an artist’s signature and which verifies its ownership and authenticity and is permanently attached to the piece.
What do they look like?
Most NFTs include some kind digital artwork, such as photos, videos, GIFs, and music. Theoretically, anything digital could be turned into a NFT.
Where do you buy them?
At the moment, NFTs are most commonly sold in so-called ‘drops’, timed online sales by blockchain-backed marketplaces like Nifty Gateway, Opensea and Rarible.
Why would I want to own one?
There’s an array of reasons why someone may want to buy a NFT. For some, the reason may be emotional value, because NFTs are seen as collectors items. For others, they are seen as an investment opportunity similar to cryptocurrencies, because the value could increase.
When were NFTs created?
Writer and podcaster Andrew Steinwold traced the origins of NFTs back to 2012, with the creation of the Colored Coins cryptocurrency. But NFTs didn’t move into the mainstream until five years later, when the blockchain game CryptoKitties began selling virtual cats in 2017.
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