This is the story of an Indonesian student who turned his collection of selfies (NFTs) into an enormous fortune because he thought it would be "funny."
Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, a 22-year-old computer science student from Semarang, Indonesia, made his money by photographing himself every day for five years.
In December, Ghozali decided to submit the images on the NFT trading site OpenSea after gathering more than 1,000 selfies.
His expressionless face as he sits in front of a computer screen is featured in each image, which varies significantly.
A nonfungible token is a unique digital item encrypted with an artist's signature and which verifies the ownership and authenticity and permanently attached to the token.
After taking the images, his first plan was to use the time-lapse videos to provide a snapshot of every single day of his college career at graduation.
"I was thinking it might be funny if one of the collectors collected my face," Ghozali said in quotes by Next Shark.
Selfies were never something he expected people to be interested in purchasing.
Although they started off at a mere 0.00001 ETH ($3) each, Ghozali's photographs quickly rose in value thanks to the attention of high-risk crypto traders, and now sell for over $10,000 each.
In recent weeks, according to Lifestyle Asia, celebrity chef Arnold Poernomo has discovered Ghozali's collection, purchased some of the artist's deadpan photos, and has been promoting Ghozali's NFTs on social media.
Ghozali's images became more valuable and in high demand when more than 400 people purchased digital rights to them in the following days.
Ghozali Everyday, a collection of his selfies, is currently valued at over 374 ETH ($1.2 million), with each selfie selling for up to $12,500.
Although Ghozali became an instant success, he said he hasn't had the guts to tell his parents about his fortune.
It's hard for him to tell his parents where he got the money since he's afraid they'll question him.
Meanwhile, local tax authorities have already reached out to him via social media to direct him to make payments, reports said.
Earlier this month, he tweeted that he hoped his parents wouldn't find out and be disappointed with him if they saw his NFT purchasers "abuse his images."
In the near future, Ghozali plans to invest the money he has made from his NFTs in order to open his own animation studio.
