Analyze how these "stones" with a minimum price of more than 200,000 US dollars swept the NFT circle

Original title: "The lowest price is more than 200,000 US dollars! How did these "stones" sweep the NFT circle? ", by Francois Lord

The price of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) soared this summer, with cryptocurrency enthusiasts pouring huge sums into everything from digital trading cards to virtual possessions.

Now, they've added "digital stones" to their portfolio.

Critics of NFTs have called this year's NFT market boom a fad, or a short-lived bubble about to burst. The same is true of EtherRocks, the recently popular NFT collectible, but these NFT holders are making a lot of money.

Created on the Ethereum blockchain, EtherRock is a set of "stone"-themed NFT collectibles, limited to 100 pieces. Each EtherRock stone image is identical in design except for the color, inspired by the classic Pet Rock toy popular in late 1975. However, they are not new, nor are they designed to cater to this year's NFT market mania: EtherRock has been launched as far back as the end of 2017.

However, these "stones" were not popular at the time, and most of these NFTs remained unclaimed for years. But this neglected early NFT project was recently rediscovered, and these NFTs started getting a lot of attention last week as Ethereum users minted the remaining “stones.” Even Coinbase investor, social media influencer and NFT entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk tweeted about the news, while discussing its accretive benefits as an early stage NFT project.

All 100 "stones" have been sold, and now the used prices of these NFTs are skyrocketing. Over the weekend, two EtherRocks NFTs sold for more than $100,000, with EtherRock #21 selling for 45 ETH (approximately $135,240) on Sunday, as shown below:

The price of EtherRocks doubled last weekend and doubled again this Monday! According to the Twitter account @EtherRockPrice, which tracks the price of EtherRocks, the cheapest piece of EtherRock stone currently on the market has reached 78 ETH, or about $246,722, as of writing! Some stones are now selling for as much as 99 ETH (about $320,000 at the time of writing). Just a few days ago, the stones were selling for around $50,000.

NFT is like a contract representing the ownership of digital products. These digital products can be a video clip, a digital painting, or an image of a stone, etc. While some NFTs may have additional functional uses, such as game items in interactive video games, EtherRocks do not have these additional uses. EtherRock official website wrote:

"These virtual stones serve no purpose other than being able to be bought and sold and give you a strong sense of pride that you own 1 of only 100 stones."

A person claiming to hold EtherRock NFT tweeted that he used 15 ETH (valued at $46,300 at the time) to purchase an EtherRock "stone" numbered #74 (see picture below) last weekend, and explained why he thinks It would be "one of the best investments" he has ever made in the crypto space. He wrote:

“(EtherRock) being one of the first (digital collectible) art forms brings a source of value to them as we move into the age of digital collectibles. There is also a nostalgic side, with collectors looking for historically significant earlier pieces .”

While NFTs have been around for years, they exploded in popularity during the pandemic earlier this year and after digital artist Beeple sold an NFT collage at Christie's for $69.3 million.

The sudden uptick in demand for EtherRocks comes as the NFT market surged in late summer. In the first half of 2021, the NFT market generated $2.5 billion in transaction volume, although the hype around NFTs seemed to fade in the late spring and early summer of this year. Recently, however, NFT trading volumes have skyrocketed, and their exorbitant selling prices have once again been making headlines.

As mentioned earlier, EtherRocks have been around since 2017 and were created around the same time as CryptoPunks (one of the first NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain).

image description

Screenshot: https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks/forsale

CryptoPunk sales have also fetched millions of dollars in recent weeks, including a CryptoPunk NFT avatar #5217 that sold for 2,250 ETH (worth about $5.4 million at the time) at the end of July (see image below ); at almost the same time, Gary Vaynerchuk purchased the CryptoPunk NFT avatar numbered #2140 for 1,600 ETH (worth about $3.7 million at the time). Last week, a CryptoPunk NFT avatar purchased for just $443 in 2018 sold for 1,500 ETH (worth roughly $4.38 million at the time).

NFTs can be purchased on different third-party trading platforms, the most popular of which is OpenSea.io. As for EtherRocks, they can only be purchased on the project's website.

According to CryptoBriefing, some of these 100 EtherRocks have been lost, and the limited number has caused the price of these "rocks" to skyrocket. Collectors are particularly keen on the "stones" in different colours, including four rare blue stones that contrast with most other stones that have shades of grey.

Some buyers of EtherRocks believe that they buy these "stones" because the value of EtherRocks is as high as that of CryptoPunks.

For example, EtherRock holder Lil MoonLambo said that there are currently thousands of CryptoPunks' NFT avatars. Compared with CryptoPunks, these EtherRocks "stones" are more valuable because they are more scarce. “We live in a meme economy and these stones are outperforming gold right now. Digital scarcity is a trend in an inflationary world,” he said.

Lil MoonLambo is currently preparing to sell an EtherRock "stone" he holds for 500 ETH (worth more than $1.6 million at the time of writing). He said: "In the field of encrypted art, 500 ETH is just a drop in the bucket."

What is your opinion on these EtherRock "stones" that are suddenly popular? Welcome to express your views in the comment area.