Cameron Hejazi, CEO and co-founder of Cent, Valuables’ parent company.
Cameron Hejazi via Kate Larkin
Elon Musk pulled out of selling one of his tweets as an NFT, but users of NFT platform Valuables are still trying to buy them. Valuables, owned by the social media platform Cent, allows users to turn tweets into NFTs and buy or sell them. The thrill of the chase and fandom culture attract users, Cent CEO and co-founder Cameron Hejazi told Insider. Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
Earlier this year, at the height of NFT-mania, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk first minted a tweet of his as an NFT and then retracted the offer to sell it after receiving bids of up to $1 million. “Actually, doesn’t feel quite right selling this. Will pass,” he tweeted.
His admirers however have not stopped trying to buy his tweets. Through the platform Valuables, which also sold Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first ever tweet as an NFT, offers have been pouring in for Musk. So far this week, 29 bids have been made on Musk tweets, worth over $15,000 in the cryptocurrency ether.
“It is very much thrill-oriented and status-oriented and, you know, frankly fandom-oriented. Elon has the most bids on his tweets because he has so many fans. And these are fans expressing their fandom…It’s that fandom that really drives them to engage in this behaviour,” Cameron Hejazi, CEO and co-founder of Cent, the blockchain based social media company that created Valuables, told Insider in an interview this week.
Valuables’ concept is simple – anyone can bid on tweets, or mint their own tweets to then sell. The authors of tweets can accept, or reject offers, users can out-bid one another or re-sell NFTs they previously purchased. Transactions are made with the cryptocurrency ether.
Minting a tweet through Valuables turns it into a NFT, a non-fungible token that is based on blockchain technology. NFTs are digital assets, like images, video,
