$200 to $10,000 in 7 days, my first NFT experience.

Have you ever heard of an NFT or non-fungible token? I have a keen interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies and had been seeing more and more discussions about something called an NFT.

My attention was grabbed by a news article of a digital artist called Beeple who sold a digital picture for a whopping 68M$ in March 2021. I watched some interviews with Beeple but could not really understand why anyone would pay millions of USD for a digital picture that anyone can simply right click and “save as” to take for themselves.

I started to see news articles about celebrities and even companies getting into this NFT space and buying PFPs (profile pictures) like Cryptopunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club.

The NFT industry is growing in strength and NFTs can be used to represent a wide range of digital assets like digital land (Sandbox and Decentraland), domain names (Etherium Naming Service, Unstoppable Domains). This is just the tip of the iceberg.

The start

November 2021, I received a marketing e-mail from Crypto.com about an upcoming NFT drop of 10,000 unique PFP’s called Loaded Lions.

I like to get direct experience when learning about a new topic and this was my chance to take part and for only $200 🦁.

Joining the drop, curiosity and excitement.

Two days later, it was time. The Discord channel was blowing up with thousands of excited people and the moment the queue opened I clicked to join.

What? 6,200th in the queue? how was that possible… would I even get one??

6 hours later, watching the progress and finally, it was time. Click, pay and reveal.. a picture of a black lion in a black teeshirt. Loaded Lion #352.

Got it! .. now what? Did I just spend $200 on a cartoon picture of a lion???

I changed my profile photo on Twitter and started to join the various twitter groups. I immediately started getting followers from other Loaded Lions owners.

Daily Twitter spaces opened which discussed NFTs, digital art, NTP prices and a lot of speculation on the future of this Loaded Lion project.

Everyone was really passionate to be part of this exclusive club.

Walking away from $6000… am I crazy

The next thing that happened shocked me, a few days later I received an unsolicited offer of $6000 to buy my Lion… what?? Who would pay that much for a picture? There are thousands of these things.

I wanted to continue this experience and was not ready to sell after just 5 days. I convinced myself I only spent $200 which I could afford to lose… so I rejected the offer. Just in case, I decided to post my lion for sale but at a price, I thought was crazy and would not sell, $10,000.

Sold!

On the seventh day, I was having a beer after work with the friend who introduced me to Crypto.com and started this whole journey. Coincidence? The e-mail landed… your Lion was sold.

After this rollercoaster journey this is what I learned:

💸There is a value derived from the ability to own digital assets.

👩‍💻 Scarcity can be programmed.

⛓ Blockchain technologies are driving a new epoch with human interaction in a digital world.

🌎 People are seeking a sense of community and this is evolving with technology.

If you are curious to learn, there is nothing better than first-hand experience. Dip your toe in the water.