“Morons”, a painting by notorious street artist and political activist Bansky, was tokenized before being burnt by crypto enthusiasts with the NFT selling for over $382,000 USD in the OpenSea marketplace.
The action was taken by a group of crypto investors known as “Burnt Banksy” who acquired the painting back in February for about $100k, according to CoinDesk. The group then live-streamed the burning of the painting on March 3rd while almost 45k users watched the stream.
The painting depicts an art auction taking place with the painting being auctioned being a canvas with “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU MORONS ACTUALLY BUY THIS SHIT” written on it.
The status of the art world has been harshly criticized by the anonymous artist, who clearly depicted its opinion in the burnt piece.
Irony aside, the NFT minted from the piece made headlines in crypto-focused and mainstream media when it sold for 228.69 ETH (over $382k), becoming the first art piece to be permanently “transferred” to NFT in this way.
The group behind the Bansky buy has announced that the money resulting from the auction would be donated to a COVID19-focused cause.
At the time of writing, no specific cause has been chosen.
For now, the group is already planning a new collaboration with a “prominent” artist in an attempt to bring the world of NFTs and traditional art together.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s First Tweet NFT Reached $2.5M Bid
The first tweet ever published on the social media platform by its founder, Jack Dorsey, is now being auctioned in the Valuables Platform as an NFT, receiving a bid of $2.5 million.
The auction has got the attention of prominent figures like Justin Sun, who on March 6th replied to the first tweet by saying he had offered $500k to buy the NFT, later raising it to $1 million, before finally making a final offer of $2 million.
Mr. Sun would later retweet the announcement of Tron’s introduction of the NFT standard TRC-721 back in January of 2021, reminding crypto enthusiasts that the blockchain network he founded could be used to mint tokens of its own.
While Jack Dorsey has been vocal about his support towards Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, this is the first time that he directly shows an interest in Ethereum. Once the auction is complete, the tweet will be minted as an NFT as a 1-of-1 autographed version that ensures its uniqueness and authenticity.
Square Acquires Tidal in a Move that Could be NFT-Focused
Square, an American financial services company founded and ran by Jack Dorsey, recently announced it would be acquiring a majority stake in music streaming platform Tidal, paying over $290 million.
The streaming platform has notable shareholders like rap artist Jay-Z, who in the past has joined efforts with Mr. Dorsey to donate 500 BTC to fund Bitcoin development efforts in Africa and India.
With the growing interest shown by the CEO of both Twitter and Square, who also tweeted that the deal was about “finding new ways for artists to support their work.”, most people seem to believe that the company will be integrating NFT into its business model.
The idea of selling albums via NFTs is not new!
Back on March 6, the popular rock band Kings of Leon announced that they would be selling their latest album, titled “When you see yourself”, as an NFT. Before them, electronic dance music star 3LAU sold a total of 33 NFTs containing its “Ultraviolet” album for a total of $11.6 million in late February.
It is very clear that NFTs are reaching a much wider audience, and despite the questionable value of some new tokens, there seems to be nothing but blue sky ahead for NFT prices.
