The sale of the NFT of tech mogul Jack Dorsey’s first ever tweet, “just setting up my twttr”, stirred quite a bit of excitement in the cryptocurrency world. The item’s rarity was met with great anticipation to see what top bids would come in for it. After a week-long auction that saw heated bidding, Dorsey surprised the world with a winning bid of $280 – well below the pre-sale estimated value of $2.5 to $3 million.
To better understand why this happened, we must look at how the auction unfolded from its beginning till end. In this article, we will analyze and discuss each step that led up to this interesting conclusion and offer insights into how similar auctions might proceed.
Background
Last week, Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey made headlines when his first-ever tweet from 2006 was sold as a non-fungible token (NFT) for a whopping $2.9 million. However, the story of how the auction unfolded over the week was almost more intriguing than the final sale figure.
Let’s take a look at the background of this event and how it all played out.
Jack Dorsey’s first tweet
On the evening of Mar. 21, 2021, Jack Dorsey – the CEO of Twitter and co-creator of the social media website – marked a new digital milestone by auctioning off his first tweet in digital form as a non-fungible token (NFT) for charity.
The tweet – posted on Mar. 21 2006 and read “just setting up my twttr” – was changed from its usual static appearance to an NFT form and then published on Valuables by Cent, a platform allowing anyone to auction off their Tweets as unique collector’s items.
The auction quickly caught mainstream attention following Twitter’s February announcement that CEO Jack Dorsey would offer his first tweet “as a sign of gratitude” to his much-loved social networking site. The tweet was sold with half of proceeds benefiting Give Directly, an East African nonprofit providing cash relief to impoverished people. With around 40 bids submitted during the week-long auction period, it became one of the most iconic art collections ever sold online with its top offer coming at $2.5million (USD) from Malaysian businessman Muhammad Farhan Fazilah at 8:20pm PST (Palm Spring time) on late Thursday night or in early Friday morning Malaysian time (April 2nd).
When converted, it was estimated that Farhan had paid over MYR12 million for possession over this virtual asset which will be put under certified Smart Contract technology so buyers can securely verify its authenticity and ownership among other features available within blockchain technology platform like Ethereum network used for Dorsey’s NFT record setting sale.
Following this major success announcement live globally, news channels went into a frenzy. Many started analyzing how digital art could attract bidders from all seven continents around the world proving once again how powerful digital currency had become when incorporated into real life events such as this historic moment online with deep background inquiries still attempting to verify if Muhammad Farhan Fazilah is indeed what he claims himself to be.
The NFT auction
On Saturday, March 6th, Jack Dorsey auctioned off his first-ever tweet with a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). The auction ran for ten days and saw interest from many bidders located all around the world. Unfortunately, with 17 active bids, it ended with a top bid of just $2.9 million — far shy of the sky-high predictions from analysts.
The NFT auction started slowly with only four bids over the first two days. On Feb 18th, however, one large bidder stepped into the fray and placed a bid for $2 million. As the auction stretched into its third week, more bidders entered and pushed past the $2 million mark by Feb 21st. Bidding escalated over the next five days as bids increased by up to 50 thousand dollars before finally ending at $2.9 million on March 6th.
In total 17 bids were received throughout the duration of the 10-day event and it eventually sold for just under $3 million – far lower than what many had predicted due its historical nature as Jack Dorsey’s first tweet in 2006 was an important moment that kickstarted an entire movement know today as Twitter which has evolved into one of biggest social media platforms worldwide today hosting hundreds of millions on conversations everyday about politics, business and entertainment.
Bidding Process
On March 21, 2021, Jack Dorsey’s first tweet was put up for auction as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) to much excitement and anticipation. But, of course, the bids came pouring in as soon as the auction went live, along with all the hype and media attention.
This article will explain how the auction went, from the starting bid to the final top bid of $280.
Initial bidding
On June 5th 2021, the initial auction of Jack Dorsey’s iconic first tweet launched on Twitter. It started with an opening bid of $2.5 million and was open to anyone who wanted to participate. By 4PM PT on June 12th, bids had jumped to $42 million after back-and-forth bidding from multiple bidders over a week.
The auction format allowed bidders to bid any amount they wanted in minimum increments of 0.01 percent of the current high bid price, meaning bids could quickly reach high values within a relatively short period due to the small increment size. Bidding itself happened through a website where bidders could submit offers. Valuables managed it, a platform for tokenizing digital assets created by Centives, which had certified the tweet’s authenticity before sale.
At 6:05PM PT on June 12th, after his offer had been declared winning by then-current high bidder Sina Estavi — who reportedly runs Bridge Oracle, a Singapore based provider of blockchain services — Jack Dorsey re-tweeted Estavi’s announcement that he was buying the digital asset for $2,915,835 – Please note that some auction fees may have applied as part of this transaction).
Bidding war
Jack Dorsey’s first tweet sparked a fierce competition between bidders who sought to own the digital collectible. The auction, organized by Valuables by Cent, began with an opening bid of $2.5 million USD and quickly jumped to $18 million in just 45 minutes. The bids then skyrocketed within the last 30 minutes of the auction, bringing it up to $43 million, surpassing its estimated value of $50 million, and set a new record sale for a non-fungible token (NFT). However, before the sale went through it abruptly dropped to a final bid of $280,000 USD due to several bids being retracted and withdrawn at the last minute.
The unpredictability of the outcome highlights just how competitive and volatile bidding can get when there is high demand for something like an NFT or digital collectible with limited availability. Bidding wars can often drive prices far higher than expected and this auction was no different as Dorsey’s first tweet was expected to fetch around $30-50 million before its sale ended at much less. While it may have been surprising for some that the bids dropped from such high numbers down to a fraction of what it could have earned, this ultimately shows how intense bidding can be as bidders seek out rare assets in hopes that their investment will pay off in the future.
Final bid
The final bid for Jack Dorsey’s first tweet came from a Canadian entrepreneur, Sina Estavi. The digital art collector and CEO of Bridge Oracle placed the highest bid of approximately $280K worth of Ether cryptocurrency. Estavi, who is a vocal figure in the blockchain industry, was looking to acquire something that “will stand forever not just online but also in history.”
The auction for the NFT ended with 66 total bids — 15 of which were placed in the last hour alone — and more than 40 deposits paid out. Although not reaching the initial predicted sale of $2M or even the later raised prediction of $10-20M valuation, it nevertheless marked a historic moment as Twitter’s and Dorsey’s first ever tweet was finally sold.
Jack Dorsey’s First Tweet’ NFT Went on Sale for $48M. It Ended With a Top Bid of Just $280
Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, turned into an NFT, recently went on sale for $48 million. Unfortunately, it ended with a top bid of just $280, a shockingly low amount compared to the starting bid.
In this article, we will analyze the auction, taking into consideration various factors that could have led to the low ending bid.
Why the final bid was so low
The final bid on Jack Dorsey’s first tweet was significantly lower than expected, leaving some to question why this was the case. After an initial spike in interest from bidders, with the highest bid reaching $88 million, the auction appeared to have settled late into the competition with a top bid of $280.
Though there is no singular answer for why the bidding seemed to stall at a much lower amount than initially expected, several factors likely had an influence. Firstly, there may have been too many interested bidders for a single item—a 16-year-old tweet isn’t especially rare—causing users to submit small bids that would not meaningfully contribute towards driving up the price. Additionally, there could have been issues related to the NFT platform’s transaction capacity that limited how quickly bidders could post offers and receive bids back from other users. Moreover, since Twitter is primarily composed of an audience that has branded themselves as “anti-establishment” or scared by economic bubbles created by digital asset speculation, this may have led many people who may have otherwise made large bids to decide against it due to moral qualms surrounding such activities.
In conclusion, while it is impossible to know definitively why Jack Dorsey’s first tweet’s actual sale price was much lower than expected at the outset of its auction period, a combination of factors related to NFT trading volumes and ideological considerations likely influenced its final sale price.
What the auction says about the NFT market
The sky-high bid for Jack Dorsey’s first tweet paints a convincing picture of the red-hot NFT market. However, this public sale raises the important question: What do these astronomical sums mean for the cryptocurrency world and where does this high valuation come from?
Firstly, it’s important to realize what has happened here. Dorsey set a record with his $2.9 million tokens. This bid comprised 550 Ethereum (~ USD 537,000), 300 Ethereum classic (~ USD 2M) and about $400 in sharding coins. The final winning bid was just a tiny fraction of that initial bid – only $280 using ETH tokens!
This auction marks an unprecedented rise in the NFT market and could be used to indicate what is possible to achieve through cryptocurrency in digital auctions. Furthermore, it seems clear that buyers are willing to pay extraordinary amounts for items or digital assets that carry a special meaning or rare status, providing further evidence of the growing impact NFTs are having on digital markets around the globe.
The money spent also suggests something unusually attractive about this particular asset – it may be linked not just to its limited availability, but also its intrinsic value due to Jack Dorsey’s celebrity status as one of the founders of Twitter. While often criticized by influential critics, there is no denying that the tremendous success story behind Twitter’s growth will likely lead more ordinary users, crypto traders and investors looking for novelty assets that hold potential short term gains to flock towards these kinds of auctions in greater numbers according to their prediction models and anticipation for alternative investments opportunities.
In conclusion, there is much speculation around why this particular auction achieved such an impressive result (which may be more than four times its intrinsic value). Yet we have seen from other similarly remarkable cases how much blockchain technology can transform casual digital sales into lucrative ones when applied thoughtfully with proper attention given not only to marketing strategies but also investment strategies relying on data based prediction models and capitalizing on network effects that derive profit from common agreement or demand structures between buyers looking for added-value within alternative values regardless if they are individual buyers or groups working together under different forms of crowdfunding or investment pools which can take multiple shapes depending on legal framework established by host country jurisdictional regulations.
Conclusion
After four weeks of bidding, the auction for Jack Dorsey’s first tweet as a NFT concluded with the top bid of $280 from Sina Estavi, the CEO of Bridge Oracle. This was highly unexpected with the initial prediction for the tweet being $2 million to $3 million.
