Late Monday afternoon, clip art of a rock was sold for 400ether (or about $1.3million). This transaction is the latest EtherRock sale. It's a crypto collectible brand that has been around since 2017. It's one of the oldest nonfungible tokens on the block.
EtherRock, which is the name suggests, is a JPEG representation of a cartoon rock. It was created and sold on the Ethereum blockchain. Only 100 exist, which is why it's gaining in value.
What are these rock photos good for? According to EtherRock, these virtual rocks have no purpose other than being sold and brought to market. It also gives you pride in owning one of the 100 rarest rocks in the game.
The new price floor for an EtherRock NFT is now $1.02million. The cheapest rock was $305,294. It was $97,716 two weeks ago.
NFTs are tokens that use blockchain to signify ownership of digital assets. The rise in sales prices coincides with a larger surge in NFTs. Some people buy digital images of apes to signify their membership in the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
After a decline in demand this spring the NFT market has made a huge comeback at the end June.
According to data compiled and analyzed by The Block, OpenSea NFT market exceeded $1 billion monthly trading volume in August. This is up 286% over July.
Even Visa is joining the NFT-based craze. Monday's announcement by the payments processor revealed that it spent $150,000 in Ethereum on a "CryptoPunk", one of many thousands of NFT-based digital avatars.
Scott Spiegel, cofounder of BitBasel (a Miami-based blockchain startup), said that Visa's CryptoPunk purchase was another example where Fortune 500 companies are racing to include NFTs in their marketing strategies. "Brands like Taco Bell and Pizza Hut have already released NFTs, but Visa's purchase is the largest in this space."
