Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX, speaks at the 2020 satellite conference and exhibition on March 9, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Wen McNamee | Getty Images
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday withdrew the offer to sell one of his tweets as a useless sign (or NFT), even though a bidder offered more than $ 1 million for the digital asset has.
Musk said on Monday in a tweet, “I’m selling this song about NFTs as an NFT.” The social media message he offered for sale contained a song with the lyrics: “NFT for your vanity. Computers never sleep. It’s verified. It’s guaranteed.”
The tweet for sale also includes a short video loop, depicting a trophy titled “Vanity Trophy” with the term “NFT” at the top and “HODL” at the bottom. HODL is a cheer used by cryptocurrency fans and retail investors to encourage peers to hold a currency or shares in a company rather than sell.
Musk changed tune on Tuesday and said in a tweet: “It actually does not feel right to sell it. Will succeed.”
NFTs are unique crypto tokens used to represent digital assets, including images and video clips. It can be bought and sold like physical collectibles. NFTs are executed on a decentralized digital ledger, or blockchain, which means that transactions, ownership and validity of any asset representing an NFT can be traced.
Musk’s tweet, including his caption, video and song, was offered for sale as an NFT on ‘Valuables’, a platform released by Cent, the social media network built on blockchain. According to Valuables, the highest bid on the Musk tweet was $ 1,121,000, from a Twitter user with the handle @SinaEstavi.
The experimental CEO is known for his approval of digital assets of late, including bitcoin, Dogecoin and now NFTs. In February, Tesla revealed that it had bought $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin and could possibly continue acquiring cryptocurrencies.
Musk’s romantic partner, a musician known as Grimes, also sold about $ 6 million to her digital artwork after it was auctioned off last week.
His exciting NFT offering Monday helped Musk divert his millions of followers on Twitter from news changes in Tesla’s top ranks and a federal investigation into a Tesla crash that took place in Detroit last week.
On Monday, financial documentation revealed that former Tesla Automotive president Jerome Guillen would vacate the role to become Tesla’s president of Heavy Trucking. Tesla has not yet announced a successor to Guillen for the role of president of Automotive.
On the same day, the federal vehicle safety authority, NHTSA, said it would send a team to Detroit to investigate the underlying causes of a “violent” accident that occurred on March 11, with a Tesla sedan and a semi truck to inspect. The investigation is now underway.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has warned investors in recent months against buying or selling stocks and other assets based on information shared on social media. The financial regulator also warned investors to buy shares in SPACs or other assets simply because of the celebrity’s involvement in the deal.
– CNBC Make It Reporter Taylor Locke contributed to this story.