Photo: Chevrolet
Chevrolet dipped its toes into the NFT waters by auctioning a digital artwork of the 2023 Corvette Z06 in Minted Green, complete with the real car in tow. The proceedings would’ve gone to charity, but, unfortunately for them, nobody was interested in what Chevy had to offer.
Trends are changing so fast that traditional companies often find themselves unable to keep up. That’s precisely what happened to Chevrolet, which thought it was cool to try NFTs for a change. Its original NFT artwork was accompanied by a real-life 2023 Corvette Z06, painted in a unique Minted Green to match the digital artwork. Despite Chevy’s best efforts, no one seemed interested in bidding for this combo, which was embarrassing.
If you’re new to NFTs, these are so-called “non-fungible tokens,” unique items that can be traded or sold in digital form. NFT auctions have exploded in the past year, with millions worth of crypto changing hands, sometimes for questionable items. Alas, what goes up must come down, and for NFT, the pitfall was its vulnerability to hackers and scammers. It’s a wild world, which made the bubble deflate just as quickly as it exploded.
Chevrolet did not see this coming, and its first foray into the NFT world ended in disaster. The fact that the crypto market crashed between the Z06 NFT auction announcement and the actual auction opening did not help either. The Ethereum, the de-facto digital currency for trading NFTs, crashed and burned from a $4,800 high in late 2021 to $1,200 when the auction started.
The opening bid for this cool Chevy Z06 NFT was set at 206 ETH, which means the opening bid fluctuated between $238,960 and $252,350 during the sale. It might have been a fair price considering the real-life Corvette Z06 with unique characteristics that the winner would’ve driven off at the end of the auction. Nevertheless, the auction closed with zero bids, even after it was extended by 24 hours.
At the time of writing, the auction appears to still accept bids. There are five of them as of the time of writing, with the highest at 6.9 ETH. This is way below the designated opening bid. As embarrassing as this might be for Chevrolet, the real loser of this flopped auction is DonorsChoose, the non-profit that GM designated as the beneficiary for the sale.
If you’re new to NFTs, these are so-called “non-fungible tokens,” unique items that can be traded or sold in digital form. NFT auctions have exploded in the past year, with millions worth of crypto changing hands, sometimes for questionable items. Alas, what goes up must come down, and for NFT, the pitfall was its vulnerability to hackers and scammers. It’s a wild world, which made the bubble deflate just as quickly as it exploded.
Chevrolet did not see this coming, and its first foray into the NFT world ended in disaster. The fact that the crypto market crashed between the Z06 NFT auction announcement and the actual auction opening did not help either. The Ethereum, the de-facto digital currency for trading NFTs, crashed and burned from a $4,800 high in late 2021 to $1,200 when the auction started.
The opening bid for this cool Chevy Z06 NFT was set at 206 ETH, which means the opening bid fluctuated between $238,960 and $252,350 during the sale. It might have been a fair price considering the real-life Corvette Z06 with unique characteristics that the winner would’ve driven off at the end of the auction. Nevertheless, the auction closed with zero bids, even after it was extended by 24 hours.
At the time of writing, the auction appears to still accept bids. There are five of them as of the time of writing, with the highest at 6.9 ETH. This is way below the designated opening bid. As embarrassing as this might be for Chevrolet, the real loser of this flopped auction is DonorsChoose, the non-profit that GM designated as the beneficiary for the sale.
Google News