The Economist sells NFT cover image for $420k
Current affairs magazine The Economist has auctioned off one of its cover images as an NFT raising $420k (£305k) with the sale.
The image first appeared on the front of a September edition of The Economist which focussed on the rapidly expanding, often mystifying world of Decentralized Finance.
The successful bidder offered 99.9ETH for the Alice in Wonderland inspired digital artwork which features Alice and the White Rabbit standing on the edge of a hole.
Alice Fulwood, finance correspondent for The Economist explained the move, saying “By selling our ‘Down the rabbit hole’ cover as an NFT we are now, in our own small way, journeying down the rabbit hole ourselves, in a fun experiment that will hopefully also raise money for a worthwhile cause.”
The company intends to use proceeds from the sale to raise money for The Economist Educational Foundation. The company also said that it hopes the sale will raise awareness about the potential of decentralised technologies such as NFTs.
The Economist will retain a 10 per cent royalty stake in the artwork meaning that it can collect a cut of all future sales of the digital image.
It comes amid an explosion in the NFT market which has seen global transaction volumes of $10.5bn in the third quarter of 2021.
Even the payments giant Visa has branched out into the NFT space in recent months, shelling out on a CryptoPunk worth over £100k at the time of writing.
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