After Jack Dorsey promoted an auction on the site Valuables for an NFT of his very first tweet, the bids for “just setting up my twttr” reach $2.5M

The Verge 2021-03-08 Jay Peters

Context & Ripple Effects

Dorsey had put his original tweet up for auction on Valuables, a Cent service that let users sell tweets as NFTs for Ethereum. The $2.5 million bid marks an early high-profile test of whether a social-media artifact can command collectible value.

The auction later closed at roughly $2.9 million, while a subsequent attempt to resell the same NFT drew a maximum bid of about $6,200. That sequence makes the initial bidding important as both a visibility event for Valuables and a benchmark for NFT liquidity.

First-order effects

Dorsey’s promotion pushes the leading bid for his first-tweet NFT to $2.5 million, giving the auction a public market signal before it closes.
Valuables gains exposure as the venue handling a high-value sale of a tweet, rather than only lower-profile NFT listings.

Second-order effects

The auction’s later $2.9 million closing price turns the bid into a reference point for buyers and sellers assessing tweet NFTs on Valuables.
The later resale auction’s much lower maximum bid shows that the original price did not translate into dependable secondary-market demand for the same asset.

Third-order effects

If creator-led promotion remains central to NFT auctions, platforms such as Valuables will be valued less for tokenizing digital items than for concentrating attention around scarce, culturally recognizable artifacts.
The gap between the original sale and later resale points toward a market split between headline-setting primary drops and thinner secondary liquidity.

The trend: NFT markets are turning online cultural artifacts into auctionable collectibles, but their pricing depends heavily on attention at the initial sale and can weaken sharply afterward.

Discussion

@jack @jack on x
https://v.cent.co/...
@the_strix @the_strix on x
The absurdities of extreme wealth. Jack “sells” his first tweet as an NFT to another billionaire for $2M in bitcoin. Any idea of the carbon footprint of this ridiculous theater? Yeah, it's massive. I want to support artists, but I don't see how this system isn't toxic to life. ht…
@alexmasmej @alexmasmej on x
By the way, if @jack never accepts the bid, he's proving a point: you can't buy the most valuable tweet. https://twitter.com/...
@sbyrnes Sean Byrnes on x
It would be very on brand for Twitter if Cent makes more money selling tweets than Twitter does... https://twitter.com/...
@wongmjane Jane Manchun Wong on x
@RReverser Yes. Jack put it on a bid and the current highest offer is $2500000 worth of Ethereum https://twitter.com/...
@evolutionistrue Jerry Coyne on x
This is the very first tweet ever put on Twitter by co-founder Jack Dorsey, and is being auctioned off for at least $2.5 million in the form of a digital certificate complete with Dorsey's signature and metadata. And. . . it's still up! Story at the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/... h…
@solidusmax @solidusmax on x
We're becoming Japan. https://twitter.com/...
@nd_kane Natalie D Kane on x
I have digital preservation questions about this, mostly about the fact that it would be nice if they would maybe work with museums to preserve this kind of digital heritage rather than do weird planet destroying novelty crap like this but am I surprised, of course not. https://t…
@katecrawford Kate Crawford on x
This is the right take on NFTs, the First Tweet, and digital heritage preservation, from a curator who knows her stuff 👇 https://twitter.com/...
@drpippam Pippa Malmgren on x
More non-fungible token (NFT) news. Bids reach $2.5m for Twitter co-founder's first post. These digital snapshots are the ultimate monetisation of the ephemeral. https://www.bbc.com/...
@daniellemorrill Danielle Morrill on x
Well why not https://twitter.com/...
@thatadamguy Adam Lasnik on x
Stop this (really really dumb) simulation, I want to get off. https://www.techmeme.com/...
@th3j35t3r @th3j35t3r on x
????? Jack Dorsey is trying to sell his first tweet - “As of Saturday morning, the highest offer for Dorsey's (1st) tweet was $2 million, from tech entrepreneur Justin Sun.” https://www.theverge.com/...
@chrismessina @chrismessina on x
Current bid: $2,500,000 by @sinaEstavi #NFTs https://twitter.com/...
@anthony Anthony DeRosa on x
I don't understand the value here. Do you own the copyright? Do people then have to pay you to have the Tweet appear somehow? I doubt it. https://www.bbc.com/...
@paulszoldra Paul Szoldra on x
people with a lot of money are not necessarily smart https://www.bbc.com/...
@rachelcoldicutt Rachel Coldicutt on x
*checks notes* yep, it definitely can get worse. https://twitter.com/...
@tonyatamanuik Tony on x
This is, by far, the dumbest fucking thing I've ever seen. A Billionaire auctioning off his first tweet with the top bid being 2.5 million, while people fight over a living wage. We've lost the thread folks. Also, for this tweet, the bidding starts at 100k! https://twitter.com/..…
@ruskin147 Rory Cellan-Jones on x
Twitter's Dorsey auctions first ever tweet as digital memorabilia. This NFT business is now getting completely barmy...(but feel free to pay me $100K for this tweet) https://www.reuters.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
The problem with trying to recreate scarcity digitally is information wants to be free. Even if you buy the concept of NFTs, Jack can create NFTs on different platforms or mint multiple NFTs for his tweet. You aren't buying copyright or IP just a hash. https://www.reuters.com/...
@tonyromm Tony Romm on x
selling digital only goods during an economic crisis for sky high value is a ... look https://twitter.com/...
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
Okay, convince me the economy isn't drunk https://twitter.com/...
@sicarious_ Sicarious on x
This tweet thread is beautiful. 1. #Bitcoin maxies losing their mind that Jack has defiled himself with #Ethereum 2. No-coiners losing their minds about NFTs 3. Justin Sun bidding $700,000 for the tweet (because, of course he is). https://twitter.com/...
@lanceulanoff Lance Ulanoff on x
I'm shocked. Also, my first tweet is for sale on: https://v.cent.co/... @cent https://www.theverge.com/...
@edent Terence Eden on x
By my count, this is the 5th service which will “mint” your Tweet onto a blockchain. Digital goods have no scarcity. Don't be conned into “investing” in them. https://twitter.com/...
@mlgace @mlgace on x
Can't wait to sell this tweet for $100,000. https://twitter.com/...
@can @can on x
“delete your tweets” remains my best/worst advice https://twitter.com/...
@philosophybites @philosophybites on x
This non-fungible token thing is taking off thanks to Blockchain. Why is there a market for such intangibles? It's like selling someone a star that they'll never be able to visit. https://twitter.com/...
@missnatoshi @missnatoshi on x
FYI Jack's tweet NFT lives on $MATIC https://twitter.com/...
@sandeepnailwal Sandeep on x
Incase you dint notice, this amazing tokenized tweet app is also powered by @0xPolygon 😎😎🖖 https://twitter.com/...
@danielpunkass Daniel Jalkut on x
I know this is getting all the flak but on top of everything else it feels off to me that a CEO of a public company is trying to profit (?) from a make-believe asset hosted on his own company's website. https://twitter.com/...
@harrymccracken Harry McCracken on x
Radio Shack tweets: $1 each, 3/$2.50 Non-Radio Shack tweets: $5 each 10% off for typos https://www.theverge.com/...
@trekonomics @trekonomics on x
Still can't get over the fact that @jack is selling his famous first tweet through an app designed to let people make money from their tweets 🤔 https://twitter.com/...
@trekonomics @trekonomics on x
all the bourgeois want to be artists, and all the artists want to be bourgeois https://twitter.com/...
@quinnypig Corey Quinn on x
I wish my shitposting was newsworthy. I feel like I'm on the cusp! https://twitter.com/...
@medicalquack @medicalquack on x
Seriously? come one RT @Techmeme: @jack has listed his original tweet, “just setting up my twttr”, as an NFT on auction site Valuables (@jaypeters / The Verge) https://www.theverge.com/... https://www.techmeme.com/...
@ron_miller Ron Miller on x
Maybe everyone should sell their original Tweet. The value can be established based on how boring it is compared to this one. https://twitter.com/...
@joshconstine Josh Constine on x
https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@kateconger O...K on x
can someone buy the tweet and then delete the tweet https://twitter.com/...
@themarkcooke Mark on x
So I'm going to be able to sell my tweets soon? Would people pay for my #futures dive bomb tweets? I marked the top just a few weeks ago. 🤷🏻 https://twitter.com/...
@karengeier @karengeier on x
if you buy this, you're the biggest chooch that ever lived https://twitter.com/...
@cburniske Chris Burniske on x
This tweet will set the bar of what a tweet can be worth, already nearing a $100K bid. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@scribblingon Shubheksha on x
My god we are truly in the worst timeline https://twitter.com/...
@moskov Dustin Moskovitz on x
Nobody needs to own tweets. This trend is bad, and it's totally ruining @BoredElonMusk who is just trying to monetize his account incessantly now. Please get off my lawn. https://twitter.com/...
@notwaldorf Monica on x
just when I thought the nft hype couldn't get worse, you can now apparently make nfts out of tweets, because that's an art form worth wasting energy on. but yeah tell me again how nfts are for the artists and how they're totally going to solve all art market problems. https://twi…
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
@jack this one gonna do numbers
@willoremus Will Oremus on x
@jack Exit Through the NFT Shop

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