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- Elon Musk said he would not sell his tweet as an NFT in the end, despite offering it up on Monday.
- The Tesla boss said it "didn't feel quite right" to sell the tweet of a song about NFTs.
- Musk – who changed his title to "Technoking of Tesla" on Monday – has been a key driver of cryptomania.
- Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
Tesla "Technoking" Elon Musk has turned down a $1.1 million offer to buy one of his tweets as a non-fungible token after putting it up for sale, saying it "doesn't feel quite right."
Musk – who has been a key driver of the mania for all things crypto – said on Monday that he was selling a tweet of a song about NFTs as an NFT, days after a token sold for a record $69 million.
Yet the Tesla boss and multi-billionaire had a change of heart on Tuesday night, tweeting: "Actually, doesn't feel quite right selling this. Will pass."
Musk's tweet is listed on the blockchain-backed auction platform Valuables and had attracted a bid of $1.12 million from a user called @sinaEstavi.
The tweet is of a techno song about NFTs, with the lyrics: "NFT, for your vanity, computers never sleep, it's verified, it's guaranteed."
The video features a gold trophy emblazoned with the words "Vanity Trophy", "NFT" and "HODL", a reference to holding assets instead of selling them.
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are a special class of digital assets that cannot be exchanged with one another for equal value, or broken down into smaller bits. They often operate as a type of collectors item and cannot be duplicated.
They are the hottest new thing in the crypto world, and grabbed global attention last week when digital artist Beeple sold an NFT for $69 million, making him one of the three most expensive living artists.
It was only a matter of time before they grabbed Musk's attention too, given that he has been a major force behind the recent bitcoin rally and has long championed meme cryptocurrency dogecoin.
Musk officially changed his job title to "Technoking of Tesla" on Monday in his latest irreverent move. Tesla chief financial officer Zach Kirkhorn has also been given the title of "Master of Coin", a change that could reference Tesla's purchase of $1.5 billion in bitcoin.
