Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has sold his first tweet as a non-fungible token (NFT) for $2.9 million. The tweet, which was posted on March 21, 2006, reads: ‘just setting up my twttr.’
Dorsey’s tweet was sold on the Valuables platform, which is a marketplace for buying and selling tweets as NFTs. The buyer was a Twitter user named @sinaEstavi, who tweeted that he had bought the tweet and that he was ‘glad this is ending up in the hands of someone who appreciates it.’
NFTs have exploded in popularity in recent months, with people buying and selling digital assets like artwork, videos, and tweets. NFTs are unique digital tokens that are stored on a blockchain, which means that they are essentially one-of-a-kind and cannot be replicated or duplicated.
The sale of Dorsey’s tweet is one of the highest-profile NFT sales to date, but it’s not the first. In February, a digital artwork by Beeple was sold for $69 million as an NFT, and earlier this month, a New York Times article was sold for $560,000 as an NFT.
Critics of NFTs argue that they contribute to the already enormous carbon footprint of blockchain technology, and that they are often used to launder money or evade taxes. However, supporters argue that NFTs are a way to monetize digital content and give creators more control over their work.
