The fun in non-fungible

IF NOTHING ELSE, our auction of an NFT was entertaining—and lucrative. Starting on Monday October 25th The Economist invited bids for a non-fungible token of an image of our recent cover on decentralised finance. NFTs are a digital property deed that lives on a blockchain and can be bought on financial platforms using digital currencies. At one point, a club of would-be bidders formed a decentralised autonomous organisation, called “RabbitHoleDAO”, to try to crowd-source enough funds to buy our token. A scramble of bids forced the winner, who went by the alias @9x9x9, to make an offer of 99.9 ether—around $420,000. The proceeds, net of fees, taxes and transaction costs, will be donated to The Economist Educational Foundation, an independent charity we support.