Here’s what happened this week in the world of crypto.
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Welcome to Nonfungible Tidbits, a weekly roundup of news in crypto, NFTs and their related realms.
Our lead story this week shows that NFTs don’t always sell for outlandish prices. We’ll go over the attempted auction of an NFT of a tweet from former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that sold for $2.9 million about a year ago — and clocked in at a high bid of $280 this week.
We’ll also cover Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s comments on the e-commerce giant’s future plans for cryptocurrency and NFTs, Wikipedia voting to end all crypto donations, and the Dallas Cowboys’ new blockchain sponsorship deal.
Stay tuned for more next week.
Jack Dorsey’s ‘$2.9M’ NFT tweet receives top bid of $280 at auction
Jack Dorsey
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Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey turned his first tweet into an NFT last year and sold it at auction for $2.9 million, which Dorsey then converted into bitcoin and donated to charity. Entrepreneur Sina Estav, the owner of the NFT, put it up for auction last week, and tweeted that he expected a $50M winning bid (he also pledged to donate half to charity). But the NFT tanked, earning a top bid of only $280 on the OpenSea NFT marketplace.
Estav declined the bid. Sellers on OpenSea don’t have to agree to the winning bid in a timed auction if the bid is under one ether. Estav is accepting new bids on the NFT, and the current offer as of this writing is a little less than $14,000.
The specs of NFTs linked to tweets are tricky. “NFTs are to digital assets what deeds are to a house: It’s not the asset itself, it’s a receipt that proves ownership,” writes CNET Senior Writer Daniel Van Boom “That may make sense for an NFT created by an artist and sold to a punter, but it makes far less sense for a tweet. If Dorsey deletes the tweet, or if Twitter pulls it, the NFT would be for an asset that no longer exists.”
Read CNET’s full story on the auction for Jack Dorsey’s NFT tweet here.
Amazon won’t accept crypto payments soon but might sell NFTs, CEO says
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During a Thursday interview with CNBC, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company isn’t planning to accept cryptocurrency as payment anytime soon However, Jassy, who mentioned he doesn’t own bitcoin himself, said selling NFTs on Amazon could be a possibility. While a timeline for buying or selling NFTs wasn’t given, Jassey said, “I think it’s possible down the road on the platform.”
Read CNET’s full story on Andy Jassy’s comments concerning Amazon and cryptocurrency here.
Wikipedia community votes to end all cryptocurrency donations
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On Tuesday, The Wikimedia community, a group that moderates Wikipedia, voted to end all cryptocurrency donations to the platform, citing ethical concerns of accepting the donations and the environmental damage caused by cryptocurrency mining. The proposal to end the donations noted the Wikimedia Foundation’s commitment to sustainability.
For reference, Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index estimates that the carbon footprint of the bitcoin network is comparable to that of the entire Czech Republic. Ethereum’s carbon footprint is estimated to be comparable to that of the country of Morocco, according to Digiconomist’s index. Bitcoin and ethereum are the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, and NFTs are commonly created on the ethereum network.
Read CNET’s full story on Wikipedia ending cryptocurrency donations here.
Dallas Cowboys partner with Blockchain.com for sponsorship deal
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On Wednesday the Dallas Cowboys announced a sponsorship deal with Blockchain.com, making the cryptocurrency firm an “exclusive digital asset partner” to the NFL team. The NFL guidelines on crypto sponsorships are somewhat confusing. Last month the NFL told CNBC that “blockchain sponsorships” would be allowed, subject to NFL approval. Cryptocurrency promotions, however, remain banned. How much Blockchain.com is paying for the sponsorship wasn’t disclosed.
Cryptocurrency sponsorships in pro sports have seen a steep uptick over the last year. In June 2021, cryptocurrency exchange FTX paid an undisclosed amount to become “the official crypto exchange brand of MLB.” In November 2021, Crypto.com bought the naming rights for the stadium of the Lakers, which was renamed from the Staples Center to the Crypto.com Arena. Influential pro athletes like Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and LA Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani have also signed on as FTX brand ambassadors.
Thanks for reading. We’ll be back with plenty more next week. In the meantime, check out this story from Scott Stein about how Meta is building an economy to monetize its metaverse.