A Non-Fungible Token that represents the moment Tennis player Andy Murray won Wimbledon in 2013 has sold for $177,777 at auction on Monday, according to WENEW – the platform that handled the sale.
Andy Murray first mentioned that he’d be putting a series of blockchain-based collectibles representing his Wimbledon victory moment on auction on a platform that sells videos of moments from culture and history as NFTs. He mentioned that this platform was called WENEW and would be holding the auction. Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, who sold the most expensive NFT ever is one of the founders of WENEW.
A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger known as called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) can be used to represent anything from photos to videos, to artworks, etc. Owners of NFTs are recorded on a blockchain, allowing an NFT to be traded as a stand-in for the digital asset it represents.
According to WENEW, the buyer of the Andy Murray Wimbledon moment NFT will not receive ownership of the copyright of the video but will instead receive a small digital screen to display it on, two tickets to Centre Court for the 2022 men’s Wimbledon finals, a chance to play a tennis game with Andy Murray and signed souvenirs from Andy Murray. Sound amazing, right?
Andy Murray revealed that he first heard about NFTs after digital artist Mike Winkelmann known as Beeple sold an NFT artwork for a whopping $69 million earlier this year. In an email to Reuters, he said that “I’m still learning about NFTs but it feels like an exciting area and one I’m sure more athletes and content creators will be getting involved in”. According to Reuters an NFT enthusiast known as Pranksy bought the Andy Murray NFT.
Apart from the Andy Murray Wimbledon moment NFT, WENEW also sold over 600 limited edition NFTs that represented other moments in the 2013 victory for prices between $49 and $4,999 each.
Andy Murray seems to have been drawn into the world of digital currencies after the NFT sale. He mentioned that although he doesn’t own any crypto asset, he is learning about digital currencies and should buy an NFT moment from WENEW sometime in the future. Murray, who won Olympics gold at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games, will defend his title in Tokyo.
In the first quarter of this year, NFT sales surpassed $2 billion. The market has seen quite some tremendous growth and NFT market value has tripled to exceed $250 million.
