Student accidentally becomes a millionaire after turning selfies into NFT as a joke

‘I was thinking it might be funny if one of the collectors collected my face,’ 22-year-old says

Anthony Cuthbertson
Wednesday 19 January 2022 10:12 EST
Comments
Mastercard Inks Deal With Coinbase as AMC Gives Shareholders NFTs

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A student in Indonesia has made a fortune after turning a collection of selfies into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) because he thought “it might be funny”.

Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, who studies computer science, took nearly 1,000 pictures of himself sitting in front of his computer over a four-year period, before transforming them into NFTs – unique digital items that are bought, sold and stored on a blockchain.

Follow our live coverage of the crypto market

The 22-year-old originally priced each one at just 0.00001 ETH ($3 ) but they soon sky-rocketed in value after gaining the attention of high-risk crypto traders, with individual images now selling for more than $10,000.

“Uploading my photo into NFT lol,” he tweeted on 10 January.

The next day, he tweeted: “Can’t believe people actually bought my photo NFT, 35 already sold in one day.”

More than 200 of his selfie NFTs were sold later that day, with hundreds more picked up by traders over the following days on the platform OpenSea.

“I was thinking it might be funny if one of the collectors collected my face,” Mr Ghozali told AFP.

“I never thought anybody would want to buy the selfies, which is why I only priced them at $3.”

His selfies are now selling for up to 4 ETH ($12,500) apiece, with the entire collection, named Ghozali Everyday, valued at around 374 ETH ($1.2 million).

Local tax authorities have already reached out to him via Twitter to direct him to make payments, however he claimed that his parents still do not know of his new-found wealth.

“To be honest I still haven’t got the courage to tell my parents, they would be wondering where I got the money from,” he said.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in