The tweet, which said “just set up my twttr”, was published on March 21, 2006. It was distributed over 120,000 times and liked over 160,000 times. A digital autographed version was purchased 15 years later, almost to this day, by Sina Estavi, CEO of blockchain service Malaysia Bridge Oracle.
“This is not just a tweet! I think years later people will realize the true value of this tweet, such as the Mona Lisa painting,” Estavi wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Estavi bought the non-fungible token, or NFT, tweet on “Valuables”, a digital platform that allows the purchase and sale of autographed tweets by their creators. He paid for the use of the Ether cryptocurrency, according to the website where the tweet was sold.
Dorsey said she would immediately convert the money from the sale into Bitcoin and the proceeds would be sent to the Give Directly Africa Fund, a charity that helps people in poverty.
In recent weeks, NFTs have sold for seven or even eight figures, reflecting a wider market euphoria that currently supports stocks, sports trading books and cryptocurrencies.
– Jazmin Goodwin and Rishi Iyengar from CNN contributed to this report.