Azuki, one of the most popular Ethereum-based NFT collections, sold off 8 physical gold-plated skateboards in an auction on Friday.
Chiru Labs, the creator of Azuki, announced the auction over Twitter and allowed the public to place bids in ETH for the skateboards, each of which comes plated with 24-karat gold and weighs about 45 pounds.
And as tempting as it may be, owners are recommended not to ride them…
“The Golden Skateboard is a marvel of art & technology showcasing our first implementation of PBT, which paves the way for a new era of storytelling.” wrote Azuki over Twitter.
“We broke the record for the most expensive skateboard ever sold (in fact, the 8 most expensive skateboards ever sold).”
The skateboards were auctioned as NFTs and can be redeemed for physical versions. In total, Azuki raised ~1900 ETH, with the highest going for ~$400,000 and the lowest for ~$250,000.
The highest bid was by an NFT trader named “dingaling,” who is a huge fan of the Azuki NFTs and owns over 70 of them, according to data from LooksRare.
Scan-to-own
One key proposition of the skateboards is authentication with an embedded physical chip that can be scanned to verify ownership. Chiru Labs calls it “scan-to-own” technology.
Last week, the company released a Physical Backed Token (PBT), which links a physical item to a digital token on the Ethereum blockchain. The technology can be used to verify ownership, including transfers, of physical items over the blockchain. Each board uses the same technology for identification purposes.
It’s not the first time Azuki is dabbling with physical goods. Earlier this year, Azuki NFT owners were airdropped tokens redeemable for physical jackets featuring American and Japanese street culture designs.
