Bought for $2.9 mln, NFT of Jack Dorsey tweet finds few takers

Crypto entrepreneur Sina Estavi
made headlines in March 2021 when he paid $2.9 million for an
NFT of Twitter boss Jack Dorsey’s first tweet. But his efforts
to re-sell it have run aground, with a top bid of just $6,800 as
of Thursday.

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The initial purchase was at the time among the most
expensive sales of a non-fungible token, or NFT, and came amid a
flurry of interest in the niche crypto assets which have since
generated billions of dollars in sales.

Estavi put the tweet up for resale on the popular NFT
marketplace OpenSea last week, initially asking for $48 million.

That price tag was removed after offers in the first week
were in the low hundreds of dollars. As of Thursday, the highest
bid was 2.2 of the cryptocurrency ether – equivalent to around
$6,800.

“My offer to sell was high and not everyone could afford
it,” Estavi, who was recently freed from jail in Iran, told
Reuters via Twitter direct message, adding that he was no longer
sure if he would sell the NFT.

“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,” Estavi said.

NFTs are a form of crypto asset which can record the
ownership of a digital file such as an image, video or text.

There is no guarantee of an NFT’s value and the market is
rife with scams, fraud, counterfeits and market manipulation.

But Estavi was confident in the value of his purchase.

“This NFT is not just a tweet, this is the Mona Lisa of the
digital world,” he said.

“VICTIM OF CRYPTO”

Estavi, who lives in Malaysia, said he had been arrested
last May during a trip to Iran and held in solitary confinement
until he was freed in February. Iranian state media reported in
May 2021 that he was accused of “disrupting the country’s
economic system”.

Estavi said he had been arrested because of the growth of
his crypto exchange, Bridge Oracle, and described himself as a
“victim of crypto”.

Reuters was unable to independently verify these details.

“I need the support of the cryptocurrency community,” Estavi
told Reuters.

While announcing the NFT sale in a tweet on April 6, he
pledged to give 50% of the proceeds – which he expected to be at
least $25 million – to charity.

He said the rest would go to support Bridge Oracle.