Fortune raises over $1.3 million in NFT sale of its latest issue’s cover

Business magazine Fortune has raised over $1.3 million in its first-ever non-fungible token sale. 

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are digital assets that exist on the blockchain and can represent different elements like audio and imagery. In this case, the magazine minted the cover of its most recent crypto-themed issue, designed by digital artist pplpleasr. 

The collection consisted of two parts: 256 limited-edition NFTs priced at 1 ETH each (around $3,000 at the time), and a set of three special-edition NFTs which were put up for auction on the OpeanSea marketplace. 

According to Fortune, the limited-edition NFTs sold out in a few minutes, some of which are already back up on sale on OpenSea. However, auctioning off the special-edition NFTs was a slightly rockier process. A surge in web traffic caused the OpenSea website to crash and many people were not able to place bids. 

Despite several other technical glitches, the collection in total brought in 429 ETH, more than $1.3 million. Fortune and pplpleasr have said they will donate half of the proceeds to nonprofit organizations and split the remaining amount. Fortune has said it plans to keep its proceeds in ETH for now. 

“I guess that makes us HODLers, fam,” senior writer at Fortune Robert Hackett wrote in a statement.