Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet to be sold as an NFT (nonfungible token) was put up for sale by the buyer for a whopping $48 million – and drew an astoundingly measly maximum offer of less than $280 by the deadline this week. 

The the seller reached out to wanna-be Twitter owner Elon Musk, urging him to bid but without success. 

Sina Estavi, chief executive at Malaysian crypto project Bridge Oracle, was looking for a massive return. So he bought Dorsey’s message as an NFT – a unique crypto asset – for $2.9 million just over a year ago – then listed the NFT for sale at $48 million last week. First, however, he promised to donate half of the profit to charity. 

The world’s first-ever tweet, by Dorsey (written on March 21, 2006), modestly declares: “just setting up my twttr.”

But offers for it ranged from nearly $6 to approximately $277 by Wednesday’s deadline. After the deadline passed, the best offer by Thursday was around $10,000. 

Estavi nudged Musk to bid on the NFT on Thursday. Till now, Musk hasn’t made an offer for the NFT – but he’s still angling to buy Twitter and take it privately while the company’s board of directors brainstorms ways to thwart his plans.