Eight gold-plated skateboards from Chiru Labs were the subject of “Fierce Bidding.”
Although NFTs are commonly thought of as flat images, they were physical skateboards that have been authenticated with an embedded chip.
Chiru Labs (creators of Azuki) hosted the auction. It allowed people to bid in Ethereum to purchase one of eight skateboards. The auction raised $2.5 million in Ethereum. According to Chiru Labs, each skateboard is 45 pounds in weight and is 24 karat-gold-plated.
The highest bidder paid $400,000, while the lowest bidder was around $260,000. A physical chip embedded in the skateboards ensures their uniqueness. This can be used to scan a smartphone with a scanner to confirm ownership. Chiru Labs calls this “scan-to-own.”
According to LooksRare, the most expensive board was won by “dingaling,” an NFT collector with an extensive collection of 70 Azuki avatars. He called the Azuki community the “most degen community” he’d ever seen on Twitter after the auction closed.
Chiru Labs allows another person to scan the embedded chip and transfer ownership to another wallet if one of the owners ever decides to part ways with the blinged-out board. These boards are Chiru Labs’ introduction or “PBT” of a physically-backed token, which links a physical item with a digital receipt on Ethereum.
According to the company, the technology can be used to verify the authenticity of physical goods using blockchain technology. The “PBT” can be used to track who previously owned the item. This could prove helpful in the art world for establishing the piece’s provenance.
According to the marketplace, Azuki ranks fifth in NFTs on OpenSea. As of this writing, it has a cumulative value of 174 ETH, or approximately $228,000. In terms of value, Friday’s auction was more valuable than the Chiru Labs collection.
Friday’s auction was one of many times Chiru Labs has tried out physical goods. Azuki avatar owners were given tokens earlier this year that could be used to redeem for jackets. The design combined Japanese and American street culture.
The Web3 space is familiar with tokens being tied to physical items. Luxury goods manufacturer Tiffany & Co. launched a series of NFTs with gemstone-encrusted pendants in the style of CryptoPunks earlier this year. OpenSea also offered a house in Germany for an NFT. Companies have explored NFTs to create secure supply chains for physical products.