Tishman Speyer, the global real estate company that owns Midtown NYC’s iconic Rockefeller Center, launched a bid to stay on trend this week by chiming into the NFT market, right alongside the likes of former FLOTUS Melania Trump and the ghost of Marvel guru Stan Lee.
While fancy yachts and luxury real estate are among some recently minted NFTs — meaning non-fungible tokens — Speyer has positioned the beloved Rockefeller Christmas Tree in the same camp.
But don’t be fooled: The actual holiday spectacular is not what’s being sold.
Instead, the tree’s NFT developer made an animated GIF of a cartoon tree — bearing little resemblance to the real thing — topped with a banner reading “79 feet,” which is the real deal’s reported height.
Not surprisingly, it hasn’t gone so well.
Rockefeller Center appears to have pursued minimal promo before posting the NFT on OpenSea on Dec. 13 for an auction that will run until Jan. 1, 2022. Just a mere four days after the posting on the NFT marketplace, it still hasn’t made much of a splash.
As of Friday, the Christmas Tree — or “digital artifact,” as it has been snarkily dubbed by Curbed — has only 122 views, four likes and three bids.
One of the bids comes in at the tune of $500 — or, 0.13 units of cryptocurrency Ethereum — which is certainly cheaper than what the real-life tourist attraction must cost at Rockefeller Center, where it has lived since 1932.
The iconic 12-ton spruce, which stuns with 50,000 colorful lights, is a glamorous sight looming over an ice skating rink. It’s topped with a 900-pound star covered in 3 million crystals.
Perhaps it’s safe to say the tree’s NFT does not glimmer with the same grandiose nature, and a digital version isn’t exactly a hot get, now that more people are getting creative with elbowing their way into the game.
A rep for Tishman Speyer, however, said creativity is what inspired the project.
“We’re always looking for new, creative ways to spread holiday cheer and offer further support for Habitat for Humanity through the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Post. “The NFT, which just launched this week, is a natural extension of our collaboration with artist Lisa Congdon who created our annual holiday map. We’re looking forward to see how this first experiment with it goes, and will be grateful for any additional support it generates for Habitat for Humanity.”
So far this year, the aforementioned Lee became an NFT (as his very own Marvel superhero), Harry Style’s colorful cardigan was auctioned and even McDonald’s “saucy” McRib entered the crypto market.
Meanwhile, the Rock Center NFT’s bids are open until Jan. 22 and proceeds do benefit Habitat for Humanity, according to the Real Deal, so there is still some time to spread to nifty NFT holiday cheer for those who are so inclined.
Source: NY Post
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