On April 13 (local time), Iranian-born crypto entrepreneur Sina Estavi’s non-fungible token (NFT) sale of the first-ever tweet of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey ended for just under $280. Estavi had bought the NFT last year in March for $2.9 million and had put it up for resale at $48 million last week. He had pledged 50 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of NFT to charity. However, the auction closed on Wednesday with only seven offers on the list ranging from 0.09 ETH ($277 approx) to 0.0019 ETH ($6 approx).
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
— Estavi (@sinaEstavi) April 6, 2022
🖇 https://t.co/cnv5rtAEBQ pic.twitter.com/yiaZjJt1p0
CoinDesk quoted Estavi saying, “The deadline I set was over, but if I get a good offer, I might accept it, I might never sell it.” Notably, the NFT is still up for sale, and people can bid on it. Currently, the maximum bid that it has received is 1.5 ETH ($4,704 approx). Though the bid has seen a massive jump since the sale ended, it is still far behind the asking price of $48 million in ETH.
The first tweet by Jack Dorsey
A copy of Jack’s first tweet was sold last year for $2.9 million. It was published on March 21, 2006, and it was the first tweet ever. It read, “just setting up my twttr”. When Estavi decided to resale it and announced it on Twitter, Jack had replied to it and said, “why not 99% of it?” Notably, Jack had donated all the money he had received by the sale of the tweet. He had converted the funds to bitcoin and sent them to nonprofit GiveDirectly’s Africa response. Estavi had thanked him for accepting the offer and said he was glad the money was used for charity.
Hey @jack , thank you for accepting my offer, and I’m glad this money is being donated to charity…
— Estavi (@sinaEstavi) March 22, 2021
Let’s #Bridge to freedom
Who is Sina Estavi?
Sina Estavi is the CEO of Bridge Oracle (BRG token) and the owner of Cryptoland, which was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms in Iran. He was reportedly arrested on May 17 last year for economic corruption by Iranian authorities. Following his arrest, both his ventures had collapsed, and now as he is out of prison, Estavi is trying to relaunch BRG tokens. The day Estavi had put the NFT on sale, he also announced the token swap where the BRG investors could swap their old tokens for new ones.
