The hype around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continues to swell as new projects emerge. Older ones also continue to excite collectors, even if they’re just rocks.
EtherRocks: the first pebbles in NFT format
Launched in 2017, EtherRocks are nothing more than NFTs representing pebbles. It is one of the oldest NFT projects in the ecosystem.
A total of 100 EtherRocks were created in 2017 using artwork from a royalty-free image database. Unsurprisingly, these did not gain popularity at the time. It was not until early August that they were minted by Internet users. After that, the networks did the rest.
On August 4, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck shared the project with his 2.3 million followers on Twitter. Within hours, the remaining 50 EtherRocks were mined and the auction could begin.
Only 4 days later, the EtherRocks were already trading at astronomical sums of up to 45 ETH, or $135,000 at the time of the event.
Obviously, on the part of the NFTs, these sales were only the beginning of a surprising craze for simple rocks.
EtherRocks coveted from all sides
On August 22, it was the turn of the CEO of the Tron Project (TRX), Justin Sun, to be caught up in the craze around these digital rocks.
He bought the cheapest NFT at the time – the EtherRock 87 – for the modest sum of 187 ETH, or 611,000 dollars. He was quick to share on social networks, as usual, mentioning that he had just “spent half a million dollars for a rock”.
Even if this amount seems totally absurd, it seems that Justin Sun has made an extremely profitable investment. Indeed, on August 22, the cheapest EtherRock was sold for more than 1 million dollars.
A price that has since been revised downwards, with several of these NFTs selling for between 600 and 800,000 dollars. As an indication, for this price, it is possible to acquire a 24-carat diamond, which has the advantage of existing in the physical world.
Not everything is ok at NFT
If you thought that the story would end there, you are not at the end of your surprises. As a reminder, NFTs are tokens that hold metadata, which allows the token to be linked to the image it is supposed to represent.
Unfortunately, many projects lack rigor when it comes to creating this metadata. The consequence for EtherRocks, for example: the JPEG representing the NFT is not even stored in the token, as Andrew Kang explained on Twitter:
“In fact, the JPEG metadata of the calloui is not even stored, meaning that the property is not permanently linked to a visual representation.”
As a result, it’s possible that holders of these EtherRocks could one day find themselves with a token to which no image is linked anymore, demonstrating the entirely speculative aspect of the hype around certain NFTs.
Of course, it’s hard for companies to resist taking advantage of this craze. Superhero giant Marvel has also jumped on the NFT bandwagon with a series featuring Spider-Man.
