Buyer defends paying almost $3m for Jack Dorsey’s first tweet

Sina Estavi says it is just the beginning of an emerging market

Jack Dorsey auctioned off his very first tweet for Give Directly’s Africa Response charity (Getty Images)

A Malaysia-based cryptocurrency firm owner who took the digital world by storm by buying Jack Dorsey’s first ever tweet for $2.9m (£2.1m) has defended his exorbitant purchase as an investment in a “digital asset.”

Sina Estavi called his purchase of Dorsey’s 2016 tweet “just setting up my twttr” as buying Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa amidst criticism from some over the hefty purchase.

“It's a piece of human history in the form of a digital asset. Who knows what will be the price of the first tweet of human history 50 years from now,” Mr Estavi told BBC in an interview.

The chief executive of cryptocurrency firm Bridge Oracle Mr Estavi is the latest to join the growing fad of splurging money on digital images, Gifs, short movies or even historic tweets to claim ownership.

The tweet was bought from the auction listing in form of non-fungible token (NFT) by using Ether cryptocurrency, a rival currency to bitcoin. He purchased the tweet for 1630.5825601 ETH, which was worth $2.9m at the time of sale.

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NFT is a digital certificate that verifies the owner of a digital asset which can be in form of photo, video or other form of media.

The 29-year-old Malaysian national said he believes it’s the beginning of an emerging market.

“All forms of digital arts and creations such as music, photos, videos, tweets and blog posts can be traded in the form of an NFT,” he said.

Mr Estavi said his investors and colleagues are supportive and appreciative of the investment because “they know the value and future price of this particular NFT and the impact it made on social media.”

According to the online platform called Valuable, where Dorsey’s first tweet was sold, the tweet was most-valued asset sold on the site so far.

The digital purchase of assets has become hugely popular this year with Elon Musk latest to announce that customers will be able to purchase a Tesla car using bitcoin. Rock band Kings of Leon also announced recently that their eighth album would be released as NFT.

The money from the purchase would be given to “Give Directly's Africa Response” charity by Dorsey. The tweet would still remain available for public viewing despite its ownership given to Mr Estavi.