With the NFTs ‘craze’ spreading like wildfire into the crypto space, NFTs are now becoming assets of great worth. Recently, the most expensive EtherRock up for resale is priced at a whopping $1.9 billion.
EtherRocks, a collection of digital pet rocks from 2017, is the latest trend to resurface in the effervescent nonfungible token (NFT) market.
On August 8, a single EtherRock sold for 45 ETH, which was approximately $135,240 at the time.
EtherRock #21 purchased for Ξ45 Ether ($135,240.03)
30 mins ago (Aug-08-2021 05:17:15 PM +UTC)
Txn: https://t.co/1zx7A3jkyS#EtherRock #EtherRocks pic.twitter.com/UNAUlhDWrW
— EtherRock Price (@etherrockprice) August 8, 2021
Following CryptoPunks’ June 2017 launch, EtherRock was one of the first crypto collectable NFTs issued on the Ethereum network.
Each EtherRock features a still image of a stone, with each token having a different color but the same form and size.
The project’s smart contracts were implemented on December 25, 2017, and only 100 EtherRocks will ever be produced.
The first EtherRock appears to have been sold on December 26, 2017 for 0.099 ETH (approximately $300 at the time), according to Etherscan.
Only roughly 20 more rocks were sold in the first three years of the game, with prices ranging from 0.1 to 0.36 ETH, according to Etherscan.
Following modest but steady sales in the first half of 2021, the recently burgeoning NFT market prompted investors to rush the remaining EtherRock supply, driving up prices.
Many of the tokens have been placed up for trade on major NFT marketplaces now that each of the 100 EtherRocks has been sold. Prices on the secondary market range from 31 ETH ($96,100) to 626,262 ETH (approximately $1.9 billion).
Gary Dahl, an advertising strategist, originally introduced physical pet rocks as a collecting toy in 1975.
Ran Neuner, co-founder and CEO of Onchain Capital, tweeted on August 10 that the NFTs are the ideal store of value and inflation hedge:
“There are 7bn people in the world, 21m Bitcoin – But only 100 Rocks in the world. Can you imagine what happens when institutional money starts flowing into rocks? It’s a matter of time until a Rocks ETF is approved.”
CryptoPunks have been one of the biggest triumphs in the world of NFT collecting, with the tokens often fetching six-figure prices.