TheCable

Sina Estavi, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, may lose up to 99.9 per cent from the sale of Jack Dorsey’s non-fungible token (NFT) tweet as its value plummets on Opensea — an NFT marketplace.

In March 2021, Dorsey, Twitter founder, had made an NFT out of his first-ever tweet and put it for sale. 

Estavi won the auction with a total bid of 1,630 of the cryptocurrency ether, worth $2.9 million at the time.

According to Reuters, Estavi’s purchase was among the most expensive sales of an NFT — and came amid a flurry of interest in the niche crypto assets, which have since generated billions of dollars in sales.

On April 6, 2022, Estavi announced he would be selling the NFT and listed it on Opensea for $48 million in an auction meant to last for a week.

But his efforts to re-sell it showed that the NFT had significantly dropped in value as it generated only seven offers ranging from $6 to $277—the highest when the auction closed the first week.

As of Thursday, the highest bid was 2.2 ether, an equivalent of around $6,800.

If he eventually decides to sell at the latest bid, he would be losing 99.9 per cent (around $2.8 million) of the amount he paid for the NFT.

Estavi, who realised that the NFT value had dropped, removed the price tag after offers in the first week were low.

“My offer to sell was high, and not everyone could afford it,” he said, 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.”

NFTs are a type 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.

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

He said the rest would go into Bridge Oracle, his crypto business.