- The auction was on NFT marketplace Momint, and the funds will go toward the Liliesleaf Museum Heritage Site.
- Lilliesleaf plans to use the NFT proceeds to revitalize its operations and preserve South Africa’s history.
- Before the Mandela NFT, Momint auctioned an NFT of another freedom fighter’s pen gun.
A non-fungible token (NFT) based on Nelson Mandela’s original arrest warrant has raised 1.9 million (approximately $130,000) in an auction. These funds will go toward the Liliesleaf Museum Heritage Site, a heritage site that documents South Africa’s struggle for democracy. Reportedly, Lilliesleaf got the document as a donation in 2004.
Using Mandela’s arrest warrant for the NFT was monumental for the museum, seeing as he was arrested in 1962 for conspiring to overthrow the White-minority government. After serving a 27-year sentence, the anti-apartheid activist became South Africa’s first black president in 1994 after the country held its first multiracial election.
Ahren Posthumus, the CEO of Momint, the NFT marketplace that auctioned the Mandela NFT, said this is the second NFT based on South Africa’s freedom fighters. Before this, Momint auctioned an NFT of a pen gun belonging to Oliver Tambo for around $50,000.
Commenting on the Mandela NFT auction, Posthumus said it would help Liliesleaf Museum stay afloat.
He added,
They have been badly affected by the lack of tourism due to Covid. So this is a way to revitalize their flow and keep history alive.
The NFT’s buyer will get exclusive access to the original document at the Liliesleaf Museum. According to Posthumus, the ink is visible through the paper of the high-definition scan.
NFTs continue making headlines despite criticism
This news comes as NFTs continue gaining popularity, with digital collectibles in popular collections fetching millions of dollars. The NFT industry started booming in 2021, the same year that Mike Winkelmann, professionally known as Beeple, sold Everydays: the First 5000 Days, the most expensive NFT to date, through a Christie’s auction.
Everydays: the First 5000 Days is a collage of 5,000 digital images that Beeple took every day since 2007. The NFT fetched $69.3 million. Following the NFT boom, the space attracted droves of people and companies in different fields. As a result, the NFT industry closed trading in 2021 with a volume of over $25 billion.
While the NFT space has made remarkable progress, experts are increasingly voicing concerns over the sector’s rapid, unregulated growth. The latest person to bash the industry was Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who said having virtual apes worth $3 million on the market introduces a different kind of gambling.
