Million Dollar Selfies

An Indonesian college student made over US$1 million in sales after selling nearly 1,000 of his selfies as NFTs on OpenSea marketplace.

From 2017-21, 22-year-old Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali took photos of his expressionless face in front of his computer, with the intention of compiling them into a time-lapse video for his graduation.

In December 2021, upon learning about blockchain technology and NFTs, he uploaded his selfies as a joke on OpenSea under the title “Ghozali Everyday” and priced them at only US$3. After an Indonesian celebrity chef chanced upon his profile on the OpenSea platform and promoted it, demand for his selfies exploded. It was reported that his NFT collection reached a total trade volume of 317 Ether (equivalent to more than US$1 million). At its peak, each selfie sold for 0.9 Ether (around US$3,000).

Ghozali will also continue to earn from secondary sale royalties from people trading his NFTs. Ghozali has shared that he will no longer list any more selfies for sale and has urged collectors not to abuse his photos, as it would disappoint his parents.

NFTs are non-interchangeable units of data stored on a blockchain system. Buyers of NFTs own the original work, which can be literally anything but are most commonly digital art. It may be fair to say that success with NFTs purely boils down to luck and that Ghozali was just 'lucky'. However, the fact that he became an online sensation overnight and made the amount of money he did is a clear indicator of consumer interest towards NFTs. Though there are already millions being traded online, NFTs as a concept (or product) are still in their nascent stage. Many do not understand their purpose, and many who purchase them do not even like how the digital artworks look but believe that NFTs (especially early mints) will exponentially increase in value in the coming years. What’s clear is that the collections that tend to sell out are either those produced and promoted by celebrities and high-profile brands or those that sell imaginative new ideas and concepts.

As one of the hottest topics online in 2021, we’ll continue to see a lot more news of NFTs as brands and individuals try to get in on the action. It’s an instant conversation starter, a signal of a brand’s atonement to the digital landscape and it continues to hold the power to create overnight millionaires. However, perhaps sooner than we’d expect, internet users will begin to experience NFT fatigue, the hype will die and many might end up being the last ones holding onto ‘worthless’ digital art pieces.