A self-proclaimed crypto entrepreneur named Sina Estavi was in for a rude awakening a year after acquiring an NFT of the first-ever tweet on Twitter by Jack Dorsey for $2.9 million. However, with the NFT craze dying down significantly since last year, Estavi could only secure a maximum bid of 10.1 ETH ($30,756) as of now.
There’s still a long way to go before Estavi can make a profit. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the entrepreneur initially hoped to sell this NFT for $48 million. But that figure seems beyond reach at this point.
Estavi even promised to share 50% of the $48 million with a charity to make the offer more pleasing to prospective bidders. But this doesn’t seem to have swayed any NFT fans either. “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 (via Input Mag).
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
OpenSea’s NFT transactions have fallen significantly in 2022
Estavi was optimistic about the prospects of the NFT late last week, tweeting, “Dominoes started to move…,” followed by a link of the OpenSea NFT page. While the bid amount has doubled since last week’s tweet, it’s still far from the expected initially $48 million. But Estavi continues to be optimistic. Only time will tell if this NFT will eventually get to the $48 million mark or even the $2.9 million he paid.
These events highlight the fragility of the NFT ecosystem. It’s worth noting that OpenSea has witnessed a 50% reduction in NFT transactions in the first few months of 2022. While the figure stood at $5 billion in January, it fell to $2.5 billion in March.
There’s no denying that many have made decent profits out of buying and trading NFTs. However, there are several instances where people have lost their life savings pursuing a big payday.
In November, Discord ended plans to integrate NFTs and crypto apps with the service. Its CEO Jason Citron initially hinted at enabling integration but later said Discord has “no current plans to ship this internal concept” after receiving criticism from the community. Meanwhile, companies like Meta and Google are still exploring NFTs.