In what is called one of the largest “hard asset” transactions to be paid entirely in cryptocurrency, an unknown buyer purchased an autographed Tom Brady football card for about USD 1.68m worth of litecoin (LTC) at an auction hosted by Goldin Auctions.
The auction house says this marks the most expensive item to be paid in crypto since the company began to accept this form of payment last month.
“The hobby is undergoing incredible growth unlike anything I have seen in my 40+ years in the industry,” Ken Goldin, Founder of Goldin Auctions, told Sports Collectors Daily.
“What’s amazing to see is that the same thing is playing out with crypto. Trading cards and crypto are now two of the most rapidly growing alternative asset classes and we know there is a lot of overlap between the communities. We believe this may be one of the most expensive hard assets ever paid for in crypto,” he was quoted as saying.
Tyler Winklevoss, CEO and co-founder of Gemini, said that the 2000 Playoff Contenders card featuring Tom Brady, who was at that time a rookie drafted by the New England Patriots where he would spend a total of 20 seasons, was sold in partnership with his crypto exchange.
The card is “known as the “Holy Grail” of the collecting industry,” Winklevoss said.
This said, the item is not the most expensive card of this type to be bought at an auction. Earlier this month, a similar card autographed by the American athlete was sold for more than USD 2.25m at an auction hosted by Lelands Auctions. Both cards had a card grade of 8.5 out of 10, but the card auctioned by Lelands had a slightly lower autograph grade of 9 out of 10, compared with 10 out of 10 for the card purchased with litecoin.
At 09:58 UTC, LTC, ranked 10th by market capitalization, trades at USD 258 and is up by 2% in a day. The price is down by almost 1% in a week, trimming its monthly gains to 33%.
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