Quick take:
- The five-day auction ended on June 24.
- It was reopened for another 24 hours after the initial closing.
- The “Mint Green” custom-coloured Corvette Z06 was supposed to be built if the auction was successful.
Chevrolet’s first NFT auction closed without a bid on Jun 24 even though it would have come with a real-life version of the custom-coloured Corvette Z06 depicted in the NFT art.
The artwork was created by xsullo and the auction of the NFT was hosted on SuperRare from Jun 20 – 24. After the auction closed on Jun 24, it was reopened for another 24 hours, with SuperRare tweeting “due to the craziness of NFT.NYC, we had users’ express disappointment they missed the Corvette Z06 NFT artwork auction window.”
However, that turned out to be untrue as the auction closed again on Jun 25, 5pm ET, with zero bids. If the auction was a success, the winning bidder would have walked away with not just the NFT, but also the physical one-of-one mint-green Corvette Z06.
The auction perhaps took place at the wrong time as Chevrolet only accepted payment in Ethereum, which was seeing a lot of volatility that week. It dropped below $1000 just two days before the auction and was priced at $1160 when the auction started. Ethereum was priced at $1225 on the final day of the auction.
Interested buyers would have to register a SuperRare account and connect their crypto wallet loaded with ETH in order to bid on the NFT. According to Corvette Blogger, the opening bid of the NFT auction was 206 ETH, which was equivalent to $238,960 – $252,350 during the sale.
Proceeds from the auction would have been donated to DonorsChoose.
After a YouTuber who read the terms and conditions of the NFT auction found that Chevrolet’s parent company, General Motors (GM), planned to deliver the physical car in September, GM changed the terms of sale to state: “The Vehicle is not currently in existence, and will not be built, fulfilled, or delivered until after the completion of the Auction.”
Even though the auction has ended, the NFT still received bids as recent as five days ago, with users making offers ranging from 0.77 ETH to 4 ETH.
Corvette Blogger reached out to Chevrolet for a statement about the failed NFT project, and a spokesperson named Trevor Thompkins said: “Our first step into Web3 has been educational, and we will continue to explore ways to leverage technology to benefit our customers. The “Own the Color” project has enabled us to establish relationships and learn from leaders in the space, such as xsullo, SuperRare and The Crypt Gallery on how to authentically approach the passionate NFT community. We’ll take what we’ve learned and apply it to future projects.”
As the physical car has yet to be built, it’s safe to assume that Chevrolet will be moving on from this project.
On a related note, Bentley has a one-time NFT drop scheduled for September but without a physical car. Looking at the results of Chevrolet’s first NFT auction, the success of Bentley’s NFT drop likely hinges on the crypto market’s performance.
Stay up to date:
