The tweet, which says “just setting up my twttr”, was published on March 21, 2006. It has been shared more than 120,000 times and held more than 160,000 times. A digital signature version was purchased 15 years later, almost to this day, by Sina Estavi, CEO of Malaysian blockchain service Bridge Oracle.
“It’s not just a tweet! I think years later people will realize the true value of this tweet, like the Mona Lisa painting,” Estavi tweeted Monday.
Estavi bought the non-fungible token, or NFT, on ‘Valuables’, a digital platform that can buy and sell tweets signed by their creators. According to the website where the tweet was sold, he paid for the use of the cryptocurrency Ether.
Dorsey said he would immediately convert the money from the sale to Bitcoin and send the proceeds to Give Directly Africa Fund, a charity that helps people in poverty.
Over the past few weeks, NFTs have been selling for seven or even eight figures, reflecting a broader market euphoria that is currently building up stocks, sports trading cards and cryptocurrencies.
CNN’s Jazmin Goodwin and Rishi Iyengar contributed to this report.