Following the launch of his Non-Fungible Token (NFT) last week, World Marathon Champion, Eliud Kipchoge’s record has sold for over Ksh. 3,966,030 ($37,000).
Kipchoge’s NFT collection includes digital representations of his career milestone on the Ethereum blockchain. It is digitally signed and officially approved by Eliud Kipchoge himself.
The auction for bidding Eliud Kipchoge’s NFTs ran for 5 days and the first set of the NFTs was sold for 14.8837 in Ethereum currency, equivalent to Ksh. 3,321,018.05 ($30,864.48). This set included the digital representation of Eliud Kipchoge’s 2019 moment when he became the first person on earth to run a full marathon under the magical 2-hour mark.
The second set of the NFTs was sold for 3.1 in Ethereum currency, equivalent to Ksh. 691,663.56 ($6,428.10). This set of the NFT featured Eliud Kipchoge’s legendary moment when he crushed the old world record on the marathon, one of the oldest competitions in sports history.
The buyer of Eliud Kipchoge’s first set of the NFTs was a blockchain investor identified as NoDaoIsLimited on the Open Seas market place. The owner (NoDaoIsLimited) of this NFT will receive the artwork in high quality and a personal video message from Eliud.
The non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are becoming more popular in the sports world and gaining lots of traction as they allow athletes and even artists to claim ownership over specific digital files, be they special moments, songs, videos or even static images.
NFTs use the same principles behind cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. NFTs have a unique digital code saved on the blockchain that allows anyone to verify the authenticity and ownership of items. They can be bought and sold like any other piece of property. NFTs can be thought of as an ownership certificate – or a digital signature, much like how a great work of art might bear the artist’s signature as a seal of authenticity.
Eliud has won 12 of the 13 marathons he has entered during his running career, including the Rio 2016 Olympic Games marathon, and four London marathons. Kipchoge also holds the marathon world record hitting a time of 2:01:39, set at the 2018 Berlin marathon, and knocking a huge one minute and 18 seconds off the previous record.