Poker lovers who are also into non-fungible tokens or NFTs now have the opportunity to claim ownership of some of the biggest moments in the history of the World Series of Poker (WSOP).
WSOP Iconic Moments Being Sold as NFTs
If you’re an avid fan of Chris Moneymaker and don’t mind spending huge sums of money to buy anything that memorializes him, you’ll be delighted to know that the WSOP has just put for sale at auction a video clip of his iconic bluff against Sam Farha during the 2003 WSOP Main Event.
Moneymaker’s famous “bluff of the century” is now available to the public, with the auction closing on Wednesday. The clip is one of six WSOP NFTs produced by the Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) and auctioned until December 6.
When the kid became a legend (Stu Ungar) hits the auction on November 22, followed by The Poker Brat (Phil Hellmuth) on November 24. You gonna call, it’s gonna be all over, baby (Scotty Nguyen) and Texas Dolly’s 10th bracelet (Doyle Brunson) will be up for sale on November 29 and December 1 respectively, while Orient Express, back to back featuring Johnny Chan will be released for auction on December 6.
All of the six video clips can be accessed online by anyone, anytime, but the NFT version comes with the popular WSOP logo and a green digital felt and is created through WAX’s blockchain. This means, once you buy the clip, you are listed as the owner of the item. The WSOP and WAX only produced just one official NFT for each of the six iconic Main Event moments.
What Are NFTs?
NFTs are unique digital assets representing real-world objects like music, video, art, or photos. When you buy an NFT, you’ll get something that can’t be copied, replaced, and interchanged – ownership of the original work. For example, any person can have a copy of Van Gogh’s painting, but only one can claim ownership of the original. This latest online craze has already produced multi-millionaires, with artists and celebrities selling their NFTs for millions of dollars.
Digital artist Michael Wniklemann, known in the online world as “Beeple”, holds the record for the most expensive NFT so far. He created a digital collage art and ended up selling it for $69.3 million. The piece of art, titled Everydays: The First 5,000 Days, was bought by crypto investor Vignesh Sundaresan.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey also sold his very first tweet as an NFT and somebody bought it for nearly $3 million.
Poker Community Shows Strong Interest in NFTs
The WSOP recognizes the fact that a lot of poker players and enthusiasts also support NFTs. WSOP Senior Vice President Ty Stewart said they’re excited to commemorate some of the most memorable moments in poker history in NFT form, giving fans the chance to own a captured piece of WSOP’s historic events.
WAX co-founder William Quigley echoes Stewart’s statement, saying there is strong interest in NFTs within the poker community.
NFT sales volumes have soared to $10.7 billion in the third financial quarter of 2021, up from $1.3 billion in Q2, based on figures from Reuters. This means that more and more people are buying NFTs, though there are warnings that the craze might eventually die down, with prices slumping as well.
Bids for the Moneymaker NFT have so far hit 1,030 WAX or roughly $780. It remains to be seen whether the WSOP’s latest move would really bring the money in. The brand is also planning to release NFT packs soon, featuring WSOP bracelet winners and members of the Poker Hall of Fame.
