SpaceX founder and chief engineer Elon Musk speaks at the 2020 Satellite Conference and Exhibition on March 9, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty images
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk withdrew the offer to sell one of his tweets as a non-replaceable token (or NFT) on Tuesday, even though a bidder had tendered more than $ 1 million for the digital asset .
Musk went on to say Monday in a tweet, “I’m selling this song about NFTs as an NFT.” The social media post he put up for sale featured a song that read, “NFT For Your Vanity. Computers Never Sleep. It’s Verified. It’s Guaranteed.”
The tweet for sale also included a short video loop, with a trophy labeled “Vanity Trophy” with the term “NFT” at the top and “HODL” at the bottom. HODL is an encouragement used by cryptocurrency fans and private investors to encourage peers to hold, rather than sell, a coin or stock in a company.
On Tuesday, Musk changed his tune, saying in a tweet, “Actually, it doesn’t feel quite right to sell this. Will succeed.”
NFTs are unique crypto tokens used to represent digital assets, including images and video clips. They can be bought and sold as physical collectibles. NFTs are run on a decentralized digital ledger or blockchain, meaning transactions, ownership and validity of all assets that an NFT represents can be tracked.
Musk’s tweet, including his caption, video, and song, was listed for sale as an NFT on “Valuables,” a platform released by Cent, the social media network built on blockchain. According to Valuables, the highest final bid for the Musk tweet was $ 1,121,000, from a Twitter user with the handle @SinaEstavi.
The experimental CEO is known for his endorsement of digital assets of late, including bitcoin, Dogecoin, and now NFTs. In February, Tesla revealed it had bought $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and may continue to make cryptocurrency acquisitions.
Musk’s romantic partner, a musician known as Grimes, also sold digital artworks for about $ 6 million after putting them up for auction in recent weeks.
His exciting NFT offering on Monday helped Musk divert his tens of millions of followers on Twitter from news of Tesla top staff changes and a federal investigation into a Tesla crash that took place in Detroit late last week.
Financial documents revealed Monday that Jerome Guillen, the former president of Tesla Automotive, would relinquish that role to become Tesla’s president of Heavy Trucking instead. Tesla has not yet announced Guillen’s successor to 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 root causes of a “violent” crash that took place there on March 11 involving a Tesla sedan and semi-truck. The investigation is now underway.
In recent months, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has warned investors against buying or selling stocks and other assets based on information shared on social media. The financial regulator has also warned investors not to buy shares in SPACs or other assets simply because of celebrity involvement in the deal.
– CNBC Make It reporter Taylor Locke contributed to this story.