Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey's NFT Is Now Worth Only $280 From $2.9 Million Because of Sina Estavi — Who Is He and What Happened?

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey created his first-ever tweet as an NFT in December 2020. Three months later, in March 2021, Dorsey auctioned his first NFT tweet to the public, with all proceeds going to a non-profit organization.

The NFT tweet went on to sell for a whopping $2.9 million, which was bought by crypto entrepreneur Sina Estiva.

What happens next was nothing short of baffling.

Sina Estavi Selling the Jack Dorsey NFT

Sina Estavi, the crypto entrepreneur who purchased the first tweet of Jack Dorsey as an NFT for $2.9 million a year ago, is now attempting to sell the NFT art. On April 6, Estavi listed the token on the NFT marketplace OpenSea for $48 million, making it one of the most expensive tokens ever listed.

Estavi announced on Twitter that he would donate half of the proceeds to GiveDirectly, a charity that allows donors to send money directly to people who are experiencing poverty in African communities.

Dorsey questioned the auction, "Why not 99% of it?"

However, due to the bad rap that Estavi got, investors' interest was low. According to Fortune, only seven bids had been placed for the token by the time the auction "closed" on Wednesday, with the highest bid coming in at $280.

Although more bids had been submitted, the highest offer is now only above $11,000. The offered prices are clearly a signal of a significant drop in value under Estavi's ownership.

The price given is a discounted price tag compared to how much Estavi paid for the NFT, let alone the amount he hoped to earn through the auction. Estavi stated that he is under no obligation to sell the NFT. He stated, "The deadline I set was over, but if I get a good offer, I might accept it. I might never sell it."

Who Is Sina Estavi?

Sina is also known as Hakan Estavi. In a statement on the company's website, Hakan Estavi has been identified as the CEO since November 2019, which describes him as "one of the early investors in the crypto space since 2016."

The company is based in Kuala Lumpur, at the Puncak Prima Condominium in Sri Hartamas, and has its registered office there. The Tron network is said to be the home of Bridge Oracle, which is a public oracle system that connects blockchain to external data and operates on the Tron network.

Sina Estavi has had a reputation in the cryptocurrency world. Coin Desk said that Estavi was arrested in Iran, based on a now-deleted tweet from his verified Twitter account.

Iranian officials confirmed arresting members of Estavi's company, and multiple local media outlets confirmed that Estavi has also been detained. Authorities in Iran appear to have taken control of Estavi's Twitter account, posting, "The owner of this media outlet was arrested on charges of disrupting the economic system, by order of the Special Court for Economic Crimes."

However, the tweet was later deleted. As ordered by the Special Economic Crimes Court of Iran, he was taken into custody on charges of interfering with the country's economic system.

Estavi is also a controversial person, with growing allegations that he had sent thugs to intimidate him outside an Iranian courthouse in April, prompting an investigation.

Jack Dorsey NFT

Jack Dorsey sold his first-ever tweet as an NFT last year. His first tweet about NFT was auctioned at OpenSea, which started on March 6, 2021, and ended on March 21, 2021. Jack Dorsey's first tweet simply read, "just setting up my twttr," which was posted in March 2006.

Jack Dorsey is known to be the co-founder and longtime CEO of Twitter. The co-founder himself decided to sell his NFT and donate all the proceeds to charity, Give Directly. The non-profit organization focuses on helping households in Africa that are living in poverty.

Give Directly works in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, the United States, and Yemen.