Making a successful comeback in 2020, Mike Tyson got linked to facing Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis in 2021. Both failed to happen.
Spending less time in the gym and more time on his multiple businesses, following Tyson on social media these days mean you need to know about one thing – NFTs.
Tyson’s avatar is even a “Cool Cat,” tied to his scheme of selling the Non-Fungible Tokens to his followers.
The worrying thing is, NFTs are not all they seem to be, and the fad looks to be finally waning.
Labeled a scam as soon as they broke through the market, it’s believed NFTs will quickly become worthless despite selling for millions.
Andrea Ledesma, a Digital Product Specialist, wrote a blog on MCN explaining what an NFT is earlier this year as the fad took off.
“Although it would be possible to use NFT as an artistic medium, this is not what is dominating the market.
“NFTS are at their core high-priced JSON wall labels. This means that when Vignesh Sundaresan bought an NFT of Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5,000 Days for $69.3 million, all he really purchased was a certified (yet non-exclusive) copy of, and information about, a now-viral piece of digital media.
“Obfuscating this distinction between what an NFT is and what it represents is how NFT startups claim that their product is revolutionary for the art world.
“On the contrary, NFTs are a tired pump and dump scam wrapped in high-tech clothing.
“The more the market thinks NFTs are worth, the more people will speculate, and the more money purveyors of trumped up JSON files take in.
“The top and second highest bidders on that $69 million Beeple NFT? Both cryptocurrency founders.
“The publicity further fueled an NFT buying bubble. How long this bubble will last is anyone’s guess, but the market might already be crashing.”
And it is…
WWE wrestler John Cena recently bemoaned his drop was a “catastrophic failure” when released at a far higher rate than he would have liked.
Cena said: “WWE wanted to put together a once-in-a-lifetime fan experience. This kit is not just this kit. It’s the belt, the clothing, an autograph picture, an autographed canvas picture, and an NFT.
“When it came up with the face value for what it cost, it came up around $500-$600 retail value and then threw in the value of the NFT.
“I talk a lot about failure. This idea failed. Why is it $1000? Because myself and the folks at WWE thought $1000 was a fair price point.
“We were wrong. We were absolutely wrong. (This shirt) is number zero of 500. I thought, ‘with a value like that. The 500 will be gone.’
“We sold 37 of them. It was a catastrophic failure.”
MIKE TYSON SALES
But it is all about making money for minimal effort.
Boxers like Tyson Fury, Floyd Mayweather, and others have been all over this so-called “scam” as it owns nothing but a slice of media that isn’t even bespoke or bereft of copying by anyone who wants to do so.
Mike Tyson has a massive pull in the boxing world and beyond. But as a fan, I’d like to see him throw his efforts into an alternative business than this one.
You’re basically buying a certificate that says you own something that is already in the public domain. It won’t be long until this craze, which is seriously bad for the environment into the bargain, gets completely wiped out.
The horrific situation is that those who paid millions for their NFTs face getting left with nothing.
The views expressed in this article are opinions of Phil Jay.
