‘It doesn’t feel right’: Elon Musk turns down $1.1million offer to buy his tweet

Tesla founder has seconds thoughts and tweets: ‘Actually, doesn't feel quite right selling this. Will pass’

Tesla founder and self-titled ‘technoking’ Elon Musk has turned down a $1.1million (£793 million) offer for a tweet he originally put up for sale as a NFT, or “non fungible token”.

NFTs are digital tokens of authenticity that are typically attached to virtual artworks to prove the item’s ownership, and have very recently sold for millions at auction.

The announcement by the billionaire on Monday that he was willing to auction a tweet, or NFT — which was accompanied by a video about NFTs — set-off a small bidding war.

It culminated with a $1.1 million offer by Sina Estavi, CEO of blockchain technology start-up Bridge Oracle, whose bid was eventually turned down by Mr Musk on Tuesday.

“Actually, doesn't feel quite right selling this. Will pass,' the Tesla founder wrote, following the auction for the NFT piece of art.

Announcing the auction, Mr Musk wrote that he was "selling this song about NFTs as an NFT," which came in the form of a more than two-minute video with a techno soundtrack.

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At the centre of the video was a rotating golden trophy adored with what appeared to be miniature dogs, a cartoon-style spaceship, and the acronym "HODL".

“HODL” refers to a cryptocurrency meme about holding onto a currency rather than selling. NFTs, as a form of digital token, make use of cryptocurrency technology.

The words "Vanity Trophy," "NFT," and "Never Sleep Computers" also appeared on the Tesla founder’s spinning virtual trophy.

Despite interest from bidders on Monday, the auction also attracted criticism from Twitter users, one of whom wrote: “NFT is great for struggling music artists such as Elon Musk”.

The Tesla founder and chief executive recently titled himself the "Technoking of Tesla”, in an apparent reference to the company’s purchase of bitcoin, the most famous form of cryptocurrency.