It turns out that NFTs of tennis balls that sold for $3 million aren’t worth that much after all, and I just died from not being surprised.
Back in 2022, the forward-thinking management of Tennis Australia released 6,776 images of tennis balls as digital NFTs. Each one sold for 0.067 in Ethereum cryptocurrency, which was about A$278 at the time. Those same NFTs are reportedly now trading for as little as 0.003ETH or AU$15 on OpenSea, a self-proclaimed “world’s first and largest digital marketplace for cryptocurrency collectibles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).” Oh.
To add a little detail and context, the NFTs were associated with 19cm by 19cm plots on the courts at the Australian Open in Melbourne. At the time, Tennis Australia reportedly promised to update the NFT’s metadata whenever a winning shot during a match hit a specific area.
What’s more, Tennis Australia pitched the whole thing as something akin to an airline frequent flyer program, offering NFT holders ground passes for finals weeks, so-called behind-the-scenes access, as well as tickets to next year’s matches if their NFT lawsuit was invalidated. tied to match point. Oh, and a Discord channel was created for NFT owners.
In 2023, Tennis Australia issued a further 2,545 NFTs, again digitally featuring Australian Open tennis balls and linked to legal conspiracies, despite controversy arising from perceptions of volatile cryptocurrency markets. If you add up the two tranches of NFTs, they would sell for around A$3 million. Nice job if you can get it.
At the time, Ridley Plummer, senior manager of metaverse, NFTs, web3 and cryptocurrencies at Tennis Australia, said the organization was committed to NFTs for the long term.
“We shouldn’t just leave our tools and walk away because the market has its problems. Obviously there are a lot of external factors that come into play when you’re exploring a new technology like web3 and NFTs, and when you’re an innovative company like Tennis Australia and AO, there’s obviously a lot going on with that as well challenges and rewards. Plummer said.
Tennis Australia is believed to no longer be issuing NFTs in 2024, although permissions have been granted to existing owners. As for this year’s tournament, which is currently taking place in Melbourne, it appears that the Australian Open makes no mention of the NFT scheme at all and does not offer ground passes. The Guardian reports that the Discord server is down, associated websites are “inactive” and that Tennis Australia is not responding to “multiple requests for comment”.
So it seems like Tennis Australia and the Australian Open would prefer it all just go away. All we can say is that it doesn’t seem surprising that something with little apparent value turned out to have little real value, although in the interests of full transparency this creator is not receiving the NFT. At all.