Rock drawing sells for $1.8 million: Meet the internet’s newest craze

The cartoon image of a rock has been purchased by an anonymous buyer for 400 of the cryptocurrency ether - the equivalent of around $1.8 million.

The cartoon image is available for free online from goodfreephotos.com but has sold for a hefty price as a non-fungible token (NFT).

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The seller, crypto trader Tom Osman, initially bought the NFT just 19 days prior for around $6,630 - marking a substantial profit from the sale.

“This might be the best investment of my life so far,” Osman said when he first purchased the NFT on August 8.

“Think this goes down as my best trade,” he then tweeted when he sold the rock cartoon 19 days later for $1.8 million.

What is EtherRock?

EtherRock’s are “pet rocks” that collectors can obtain and keep on the Ethereum blockchain.

Launched in 2017, EtherRock was one of the first collectible NTF projects and only 100 rocks can ever be available at any given time.

Because of this, each new “virgin rock” will be more expensive than its predecessors.

“These virtual rocks serve NO PURPOSE beyond being able to be bought and sold, and giving you a strong sense of pride in being an owner of one of the only 100 rocks in the game,” the Ether Rock website said.

The cartoon rocks come in various shades of grey and brown and are attached to their own NFT.

A few weeks ago the rocks were selling in the hundreds of thousands with another crypto trader, Justin Sun, tweeted that he had also acquired an EtherRock for “half a million dollars”.

The price of the rocks spiked around August 23, with some investors estimating the other rocks will now be sold in the millions.

Ether Rocks can be bought and sold using ether on EtherScan, a platform powered by Ethereum.

Highest selling NFTs

The recent sale means that the cartoon rock now joins the ranks of the top ten most expensive NFTs to be sold.

According to Screenrant, the top ten most expensive NFTs are:

1. Beeple’s “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS”: $69 million

2. CryptoPunk #3100: $7.58 million

3. CryptoPunk #7804: $7.57 million

4. Beeple’s “Crossroads”: $6.6 million

5. Doge: $4 million

6. Jack Dorsey (and Twitter’s) first-ever tweet: $2.9 million

7. The Best I Could Do: $1.65 million

8. CryptoPunk #6965: $1.6 million

9. Axie Infinity Virtual Game “Genesis” Estate: $1.5 million

10. Auction Winner Picks The Name: $1.3 million

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