Elon Musk decides to not sell techno song about NFTs as an NFT after bidding tops $1 mn

Just a day after announcing his plans to sell his techno songs about NFTs (non-fungible tokens), Tesla owner Elon Musk seems to have changed his mind. Musk, on March 16, shared video of a song and revealed that he will sell this song in form of NFT which is a digital certificates of authenticity. While the song hit record-breaking numbers getting over 10 million views within hours, Tesla CEO took to Twitter on March 17 to suggest that he is not selling the song anymore.

Musk's techno song went viral within hours with people left wondering how much it would cost. While Musk already had potential buyers, he did not include details about the digital auction and the platform. Though the tweet did not include a link to NFT, his song was listed for sale on “Valuables.”

Beeple bids for Musk's song

Famous artist Beeple, who himself sold his digital-only art who a whopping $69 million in a digital auction, was among the potential buyers. The artist replied to Musk's tweet saying he would buy it for $69 million. The billionaire, who has been promoting cryptocurrency Dogecoin quite aggressively through his tweets, replied to his tweet with "420 M Doge" and Beeple agreed!

The tweet received highest offer from Sina Estavi, CEO of Bridge Oracle, for $1.12 million. According to the auction on Valuable By Cent, the tweets marketplace holding the auction, the highest bidder would have received “a digital certificate of the tweet, unique because it has been signed and verified by the creator.”

Musk is not selling NFT song anymore

After trying to strike a deal with Beeple, Musk changed his mind and dropped the idea of selling the song. Taking to Twitter on March 17, Musk said that selling the song doesn’t "feel quite right" and hence 'will pass.' 

What is Musk's NFT song?

Musk's viral song about NFTs shows a rotating 'Vanity Trophy' with words 'HODL' written on it. It also says “computers never sleep" on the bottom. While the word HODL appears to be a misspelled version of HOLD, it is actually slang in the cryptocurrency community for holding a cryptocurrency rather than selling it. The song with a techno beat repeats the word "NFT" over and over and towards the end it has female-sung lyrics "NFT for your vanity, computers never sleep, it's verified, it's guaranteed." The lyrics also refer to different elements of the technology including Doges representing dogecoin.

What is an NFT?

NFT or Non-fungible tokens are a class of cryptocurrency that has no standard value and they instead have a unique value. NFT can be understood as a "digital file whose unique identity and ownership are verified on a blockchain." NFTs are created by uploading files and are not mutually interchangeable as each of them has a unique value.  

NFTs have recently gained a lot of attention in the digital market with many celebrities putting up their art for sale in form of a digital certificate. Most recently, a digital-only artwork by an artist named Mike Winkelmann, popularly known as Beeple, was sold at Christie's for a whopping $69 million. The artwork, which does not exist in physical form, was a JPG file that was sold in form of NFT. Earlier on March 3, Tesla Founder Elon Musk's girlfriend and musician Grimes had sold some of her digital art for more than $6m.