Is the NFT bubble bursting already? Well, there have been some clear signs lately to support that. Remember Iranian-born crypto entrepreneur Sina Estavi who made headlines last year by purchasing Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet NFT for $2.9 million last year? It was one of those stories that fuelled the hype around NTFs. It turns out Estavi had recently listed the NFT for sale on OpeanSea for a whopping $48 million, which would earn him a profit of over $45 million (that’s 1500% return in just one year). Crazy, right? He even pledged 50% of its proceeds to charity. “This NFT is not just a tweet, this is the Mona Lisa of the digital world,” he said. But the crypto investor was in for a rude shock when the auction closed on Wednesday with a maximum bid of $277. Yup, you read that right and there’s no typo error either.
I decided to sell this NFT ( the world's first ever tweet ) and donate 50% of the proceeds ( $25 million or more ) to the charity @GiveDirectly
🖇 https://t.co/cnv5rtAEBQ pic.twitter.com/yiaZjJt1p0— Estavi (@sinaEstavi) April 6, 2022
The auction received just seven total offers ranging between 0.0019 ETH (approximately $6) to 0.09 ETH (about $277). “The deadline I set was over, but if I get a good offer, I might accept it, I might never sell it,” Estavi told CoinDesk. Interestingly, the asking price was removed after offers in the first week were in the low three digits. However, the NFT received more bids after the auction closed on Wednesday and the top offer currently stands at 4.2 ETH (about $12,733). While it’s much better than $277, it’s a far cry from the $2.9 million he paid for the NFT, let alone the gargantuan $48 million asking price. “My offer to sell was high and not everyone could afford it,” Estavi told Reuters. “It’s important to me who wants to buy it, I will not sell this NFT to anyone because I do not think everyone deserves this NFT.”
