Edward Snowden is making headlines again.
This, after a non-fungible token (NFT) portraying the infamous National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, sold for $5.44 million at an auction held on the Foundation platform.
The winning bidder — username @PleasrDAO on OpenSea — took home the item in the middle of bids during the final minutes of the sale.
The sale made “Stay Free” one of the single-most expensive Non-Fungible Tokens to be sold at an auction following Beeple’s, which fetched at nearly $70 million. There are many athletes and artists that emerged from the NFT craze, making millions of dollars, but few have made such a haul.
The ‘Stay Free’ NFT
Now everyone’s curious about the token that fetched such a commanding price tag.
It is based on an image made by visual artist Platon that resembles a shaded motif of the face of the NSA whistleblower set against documents of court related to his exposé.
It contained the pen-to-paper signature of Snowden and was billed as his only non-fungible token, although there are no clear future plans yet, especially on the production of another NFT.
Edward Snowden speaks
Snowden turned to Twitter after the sale of his token and expressed his gratitude to everyone who has followed the event, as well as everyone at Freedom of the Press Foundation. He also thanked those who put their bids during the auction.
He said in another post that they have never seen anything like this and that it was more than just a spectacle, but a drama. He ended by saying, “all eyes turn to the dark horse.”
All of the funds that came from the sale will be donated to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, as announced by the former Central Intelligence Agency contractor who has been in self-imposed exile in Russia.
Image courtesy of JRE Clips/YouTube Screenshot