Eliud Kipchoge, an eight-time major marathon winner and three-time Olympic medalist who is often regarded as the greatest marathoner of all time, became the first Kenyan professional athlete to sell his own set of NFTs.
According to the official Twitter handle of Eliud Kipchoge, the athlete, launched his first two sets of NFTs. Eliud said that he was delighted to have the memories of his career available as NFTs. He further said that he hopes that he will give someone around the world the exact memories it gave to him.
The digital representations–Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)– of his career achievements were signed and officially approved by Eliud Kipchoge himself. These artworks were done by Momentible.io on the Ethereum network, in which they partner with Opensea.io (an NFTs marketplace), to showcase the digital trading arts of Eliud Kipchoge.
The auction of Eliud Kipchoge’s NFTs for bidding lasted for five days. The first set of the NFTs is the digital representation of Eliud Kipchoge’s 2019 moment, when he became the first person on earth to run a full marathon under the eye-popping 2-hour mark. This was sold for 14.8837 ETH, which is equivalent to $30,864.48 (Ksh 3,321,018.05).
The second set of the NFTs is the digital representation of Eliud Kipchoge’s legendary moment when he crushed the old world record on the marathon, one of the oldest competitions in sports history. This was sold for 3.1 ETH, which is equivalent to $6,428.10 (Ksh 691,663.56).
One of the buyers of Eliud Kipchoge’s first set of the NFTs is a blockchain investor known as “NoDaoIsLimited”, on the Opensea Marketplace. In addition, the “NoDaoIsLimited” also received a personal video message from Eliud Kipchoge.
Kipchoge is the first marathoner to run 26.2 miles in a once-inconceivable time of 1 hour 59 minutes 40 seconds at the age of 34 years. He broke a milestone record that seemed to be untouchable only a few years prior. But this cannot be recognized as an official world record because it was not run under open marathon conditions.
The famous Kenyan Athlete and the reigning Olympic champion, ran 2 hours minutes 5 seconds, in the London Marathon which is just 8 seconds off the world record held by Dennis Kimetto, a fellow countryman.
The Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are already receiving the attention of popular athletes, celebrities, musicians, and several others. Recently, Cristiano Ronaldo’s NFT token card was sold for €252,800 on Soare (NFTs fantasy football platform). This shows how the digital market is increasingly involving sports.
NFTs are a special type of cryptocurrency, in which each NFT represents a unique digital item. Every NFT has a unique code – metadata that lies within it. This ensures authenticity and originality. It can be bought, sold or held, just as any other property.
