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- Tim Berners-Lee's NFT of the World Wide Web's source code went for $5.4 million at auction.
- The NFT contained the code in its entirety, a 30-minute animation and a letter written by Berners-Lee.
- The market for NFTs has cooled off since a Beeple artwork sold for $69 million in May.
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Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has sold the web's original source code as an NFT, or nonfungible token, for just over $5.4 million at auction.
The NFT, titled "This Changed Everything," changed hands for $5,434,500 in the Sotheby's auction, which ended on Wednesday. The proceeds from the sale of the piece of internet history will go to philanthropic initiatives supported by Berners-Lee and his wife.
Based on the ethereum blockchain, the NFT included a digital poster of the source code, a visually animated version of it being written, a letter from the Berners-Lee with his thoughts on his invention of the web in 1989.
"This unique auction marked the first time a digital-born artefact has ever been offered for sale at Sotheby's, and this has to be the ultimate example of its kind – one minted by Sir Tim himself," the auction house said in its catalog.
NFTs boomed in popularity and price earlier this year as the crypto-hype took over. A NFT by crypto-artist Beeple, named "Everydays: The first 5,000 Days" sold at auction house Christie's in February for $69 million. While the market has since cooled off, celebrities and artists such as Katy Perry continue to offer up their work as NFTs.
Sotheby's sold its first NFT in April for $17 million, and it has accepted payments in cryptocurrency - bitcoin and ether - for real-world auction items, including a painting by Banksy and will do the same for a rare diamond up for auction this month.