Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg
Update on Jan. 16, 3:40pm: This article has been updated for accuracy.
An Indonesian college student has made US$1 million in sales after selling nearly 1,000 of his selfies on OpenSea, a platform for trading non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Took selfies everyday for five years
22-year-old Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali is a computer science major at a university in Semarang, Indonesia.
From 2017 to 2021, Ghozali had snapped a photo of his expressionless face while standing in front of the computer, with the intention of compiling the shots to create a timelapse video for his graduation day.
In December 2021, he decided to upload his selfies to OpenSea under the title "Ghozali Everyday" after learning about blockchain technology, and priced them at S$3 each, reported AFP.
Ghozali simply thought it would be "funny" if collectors bought a picture of his face, and never expected sales for his selfies to blow up.
Demand for his stoic selfies exploded when a celebrity chef started buying some and promoted Ghozali on his social media.
According to AFP, one selfie sold for 0.247 of the cryptocurrency ether — around US$806 — on Jan. 14.
At its peak, each selfie sold for 0.9 ether, which is around US$3,000, before decreasing slightly, Lifestyle Asia reported.
Ghozali's collection subsequently reached a total trade volume of 317 ether, equivalent to more than US$1 million.
Hypebeast shared on Instagram that Ghozali has earned a total of US$103,620 from secondary sales.
Every NFT photo has a "story"
Ghozali has since transformed into a viral sensation, and his tweets providing updates on his NFT sales garner thousands of likes and retweets.
He also regularly comments on the selfies other Twitter users have collected.
He also shared that he will not be listing anymore of his selfies in the next few years.
Collectors can do anything they want to his photos, Ghozali added, but he urged them to "take care" of his photos and to "please don't abuse my photos or my parents will be very disappointed".
AFP reported that Ghozali dreams of opening his own animation studio one day, and currently plans to invest the money.
In the meantime, he will continue to take daily selfies until his finishes college.
He will also make his first tax payments because he is "a good Indonesian citizen".
Follow and listen to our podcast here
Top photo from Ghozali_Ghozalu / Twitter