6 weird NFTs that have actually been sold. For A LOT of money.
Nonfungible tokens or NFTs are the newest ballgame in the 21st century, and people across the globe have been listing a lot of their virtual art for sale on the internet. We don't know whether to call it a sensation or a scandal, but here is what is happening: Memes are being sold for the cost of a luxury car like Tesla, tweets are fetching seven-figure bids, and digital art is being sold for multiple millions.
Nonfungible tokens are basically items that put the ownership of a digital product (like digital art, a video or even just a jpeg or gif file) on a person and say, if you have an NFT, it is like you own the original painting. And that original painting has a unique value.
Now as days pass by, the internet is becoming a more inclusive place to sell more random NFTs. Here are some bizarre ones that have been sold for mind-boggling amounts of money.
1. SELL YOUR SOUL
Recently, a 21-year-old Dutch student named Stijn van Schaik listed his soul as a digital artwork on the NFT marketplace, OpenSea.
Crypto-enthusiast Stijn, who also calls himself 'Stinus', has a dedicated website which contains a 'Sale of Soul Contract' that lists permitted uses of the soul. Till date, he has received the highest bid of $491.08 for this artwork. That's approximately Rs 37,000.
2. A SLEEPY TRUMP
An NFT art named 'Crossroad' resembling former US President Donald Trump with a number of graffitis drawn on his skin was sold for $6.6 million (about Rs 50 crore) in 2021. The video of Trump represents the results of the 2020 US Presidential election, where Trump lost his cherished seat as the POTUS.
3. A 5-WORDED TWEET
Jack Dorsey's first tweet will always be special and memorable. Jack Dorsey is the former CEO and founder of Twitter, and his tweet is special not just because he created the platform, but because he sold his tweet as an NFT... for $2.9 million (about Rs 22 crore). How is that not going to be memorable?
Well, did he write something huge or monumental or emotional as his first tweet? Nope. Just plain five words.
4. $3 SELFIE PICTURES
22-year-old Indonesian student Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali would click picture of himself every day during his college years. His idea was to make a timelapse video and use it at his graduation. But when he learnt of NFTs, he decided that he would try to sell his photos to others. Wouldn't it be fun to see his image in someone else's NFT collection?
His selfies were shared on OpenSea as a collection called “Ghozali Everyday”. This featured his everyday selfies taken by him between the age of 18 and 22, from 2017 to 2021. In his 933 ‘selfie’ pictures, which were launched as NFTs, he just stared in front of his computer every day. Since he never thought anyone would buy his expressionless photos, he priced them at $3.
But destiny took a turn when Indonesian celebrity chef Arnold Poernomo and many other entrepreneurs chipped in, promoted his collection to help Ghozali make some extra income. His selfies (NFT art) went viral, and he was flooded with bids from more than 400 people to purchase the ownership rights to his images.
His first sale was priced at 0.001 ETH ($3.25) each and in a few days, it sold out and he made $3,000 (about Rs 2,27,000).
Then, after two days, his collection value rose to 1 ETH ($3,250 ie. Rs 2,46,000) for each NFT, and in January 2022, the value of each selfie was appromiately $800, thus making his collection worth around $1.4 million (Rs 10.63 crore), having already hovered around the $3 million mark .
5. TOILET PAPER
Charmin, the brand that makes toilet paper, was in the news for a strange marketing effort: a toilet paper-themed NFT art. Charmin put out various illustrations of rolls of toilet paper for sale as NFT.
The current highest bid for one of these art pieces was $1,086 (about Rs 83,000) for 1 edition, probably something that could buy about 6,000 rolls of actual toilet paper. All proceeds from this auction were meant to be donated to Direct Relief, an organisation that provides relief in emergency situations, and lifesaving medical resources to communities in need.
6. CRISPY PRINGLES
We can almost taste this! CryptoCrisp, a virtual flavour depicted as a piece of art and limited to just 50 versions, was launched by Pringles. The 'flavour' is an 1080×1080 MP4 file that showed animated spinning golden Pringles can with crypto-themed chips. The NFT was listed at a price of 0.0013ETH (approximately $2 USD) and was later sold for $1,500.
What is the wierdest NFT you have seen yet?