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- Chris Sacca sees the $ 69 million NFT sale this week as significant.
- The venture capitalist said that people should not ignore non-fungible tokens.
- Sacca highlighted the appeal of collectibles and the value of the creators’ payment.
- See more stories on the Insider business page.
Some people will have rolled their eyes at the record sale of $ 69 million of a digital work of art at a Christie’s auction this week. They should pay attention to what the transaction means, billionaire investor Chris Sacca tweeted after the news was released.
“No matter what you feel about NFTs, don’t look away from it,” he said. He was referring to non-fungible tokens that serve as virtual certificates of ownership and authenticity for digital items and are securely stored on a blockchain.
“It’s normal not to understand why someone would pay for it and it’s okay to be upset about the climate impact,” continued Sacca. “But don’t be intentionally ignorant about what’s going on.”
Metakovan, the pseudonym buyer of “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by the artist Beeple, will receive an NFT confirming that he is the new owner of the piece. However, there is nothing to stop others from downloading and sharing copies of the artwork.
Sacca – one of the first investors on Uber, Twitter and Instagram – praised the NFTs and minimized concerns that they will be a fad.
“Very cool and I am a collector at heart,” he said in a Twitter topic last month. “I don’t think it’s a bubble and I think it will work.”
However, the founder of Lowercase Capital and a former “Shark Tank” star said he would not abandon physical memories anytime soon. “I have a feeling this will be the technology that will finally make me the ‘Yes, but I only listen to vinyl’ guy,” he joked on the topic.
Sacca praised the NFTs as the next frontier for collectibles and praised them for allowing creators to collect royalties on future resale of their work, in an interview with Forbes published this week.
“Collections as a reflection of your identity are powerful,” he said. “And I will never underestimate the beauty of the tools that enable creatives to make and get paid for their best shit.”
Billionaire investor and fellow Shark Tank star Mark Cuban also praised the NFTs in an interview this week, labeling the ability to receive royalties as a “game changer” for digital commerce.