Oh, how the mighty NFT has fallen

Sina Estavi has entirely too much money.

Oh, maybe not "entirely too much money" as in Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. 

But "entirely too much money" to the degree that, in March 2021, he was able to spend $2.9M for a nonfungible token (i.e., digital representation) of the firs tweet sent by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Contents of NFT, Jack's May 2006 message o the future:  just setting up my twittr.

(Can you imagine what someone would pay for an NFT of a recording of Alexander Graham Bell's first "Mr. Watson, come here; I want you" phone call?)

Of course, Sina Estavi may well not have "entirely too much money". He's the CEO of a crypto outfit, so the money he does have may be more "funny" or "unreal" than it is "entirely too much." Nevertheless, last March he did pay $2.9M for that famous NFT.

I'm sure at the time Mr. Estavi was thinking "great publicity" as much as he was thinking "cashing out at some point." But "cashing out at some point" had to have been in there, at least in the background, when he made his purchase. And, sure enough, he recently decided to test the NFT waters and see if he could recoup. Make that RECOUP, as Estavi was looking for $48M, which would have made for a very handsome return.

Of course, it can never hurt to ask, but that $48M turned out to be a tad on the optimistic side. Not really a surprise. Certainly someone who heads a crypto company is all about crazy, surreal even, optimism. 

Instead of $48M - or even a breakeven of $2.9M - there were just seven measly offers made for Jack's First Tweet, and they ranged from about $6 to $280. I'm no crackerjack investor, but I don't think that a $2.9M investment which a year later is worth $280 was a good one.

Not that I haven't made a non-good investment. Or two.

I don't recall how much I paid for a few shares of Wang stock purchased in the late 1980's through their ESOP (employee stock ownership plan). But I do know that when I wrote it off as a capital loss in the early 1990's, I used zero for the value.

Ditto for the shares of Genuity I bought in 2000 in anticipation of "our" IPO. As an employee, as a manager, I felt I had to show a little faith in my company. So I did. But my faith had its limits, and, unlike many colleagues who mortgaged their houses or invested their kids' college funds, I decided that I would invest an amount I was prepared to lose. That turned out to be $11K (1,000 shares at the pre-IPO friends and family price). Good thing I was prepared to lose $11K.

The day before the IPO, there was an article in The Boston Globe that said the Genuity offering was so big - largest ever a the time - and complex that it was "strictly for the pros."

Actually, it turned out to be strictly for the amateurs.

On opening day, right out the gate, the price started drifting down. By the closing bell, I think it was going for about $9. Gulp. (As I observed to a colleague, "there aren't enough office supplies in this building for people to make up for their losses.") 

If only us amateurs could have gotten out at $9. But, no, we had to hold 'em for six months, and during that six months period we got to watch the share price drift towards zero. 

Thank you, Jesus, for the ability to declare a capital loss!

Fortunately, for the obvious reason that I don't have that kind of walking around money, I never made a $2.9M investment that turned into dust (i.e., $280). 

Estavi, of course, let the bid expire. He says that "I might never sell it."

To have and to hold, to cherish and to keep: Jack Dorsey's first tweet. Maybe he can turn it into a pdf, print it out, get it framed, and hang it on his wall.

Not surprisingly, the NFT market is cooling. A recent Fortune article  headlined "The NFT bubble is showing clear signs of bursting" included the gem:

Even some of the best-known NFTs are seeing their values slip. A Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT saleFriday morning seemed like a big-dollar transaction at $224,028.62, but that represented a $67,799.54 loss for the seller, who bought it at the end of January.

I wasn't familiar with the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and, frankly I wish I'd kept it that way. But if an NFT of a cartoon ape can go for nearly a quarter of a million bucks - even if that represents a chunky monkey of a loss since January - Jack's tweet's gotta be worth more than $280.

Or not. 

Our culture and economy just seem to be getting dumb and dumber. I believe even bored apes wouldn't be wild spending on NFT's.