Ever since digital artist Beeple broke records with a $69 million sale in 2021, NFT has been a buzzword. More and more artists have placed their work on platforms like OpenSea to be bought and sold with cryptocurrency. If you doubted the power of NFTs, the story of Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali might change your mind. The 22-year-old Indonesian computer science student became a millionaire overnight after selling his selfies as NFTs.
Since 2017, Ghozali has been taking daily selfies. While he missed a few days, he still has almost 1,000 selfies. He originally took them to put together a time-lapse video, but he recently decided to see what would happen if he sold his images as NFTs.
“I was thinking it might be funny if one of the collectors collected my face,” Ghozali shared. “I never thought anybody would want to buy the selfies, which is why I only priced them at $3 [0.00001 ETH].”
What started out as a joke quickly turned into something serious when Ghozali began to see how quickly his images were selling. His collection, which is sold on OpenSea, is called Ghozali Everyday. After going on sale in late December 2021, the collection went viral when an Indonesian celebrity chef bought one and began promoting it online. Now, prices have spiked to a high of 0.9 ETH ($3,000) and he's sold 387 NFTs. Over the past seven days, the daily average price for one of Ghozali's selfies has been 0.249 ETH ($586).
when I try to focus on doing my homework at home while listening to your playlist
Saturday, September 18, 2021, 4:51:57 PM https://t.co/PRWCycI9q0
— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 11, 2022
At this point, his earnings total over $1 million. This also includes what he's earned in royalties after sold NFTs are traded. In addition to his millionaire status, he's become an overnight NFT celebrity, which has left the student feeling a bit confused by the attention.
He often shares updates about sales with his Twitter followers and recently mused, “Today (I) sold more than 230+ (selfies) and until now I don't understand why you want to buy #NFT photos of me !!! but i thank you guys for 5 years of effort paid off.”
When he's not being interviewed by journalists or being invited to participate in forums about NFTs, he's thinking about how he's going to explain his new wealth to his family. As of 10 days ago, he still hadn't shared what had been happening with his parents. “To be honest I still haven't got the courage to tell my parents, they would be wondering where I got the money from,” he said.
this is my first tax payment in my life https://t.co/VDa8KYYPGs
— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 14, 2022
What he will be sure to do is pay his taxes. His newfound wealth has already caught the eye of local tax authorities, who kindly gave him advice on how to pay his taxes. Ghozali's response? “This is my first tax payment in my life,” Ghozali responded. “Of course I will pay for it because I am a good Indonesian citizen.”
As for what he's planning on doing with the money? In the future, he hopes to open an animation studio and, for now, will invest the money. In the meantime, he'll keep taking selfies so that he can make his time-lapse video when he graduates. In regards to his photos, he's just asked that people not abuse his images and has already started posting some of the things that people are doing with his selfies, like turning them into shirts.
Indonesian student Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali has spent five years taking selfies, which he recently decided to sell as NFTs.
Uploading my photo into nft lolhttps://t.co/E3Q4sBmN26#NFT #opensea pic.twitter.com/rD51rdcpzp
— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 10, 2022
While the sale started as a joke, Ghozali has now sold hundreds of selfies and earned over $1 million.
In fact, he still isn't sure why his selfies are so appealing.
today sold more than 230+
and until now I don't understand why you want to buy #NFT photos of me !!!but i thank you guys for 5 years of effort paid off pic.twitter.com/nHZJnowCMC
— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 11, 2022
But he's asked his followers not to abuse his photos and even posts some of the fun things that people create with them.
It's been 3 days and left 331 NFT
sold out now because for the next few years I won't be listingYou can do anything like flipping or whatever but please don't abuse my photos or my parents will very disappointed to me
I believe in you guys so please take care of my photos. pic.twitter.com/oyGGR2Aben
— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 12, 2022
I didn't expect there to be a merch lol, but it looks cool@brandonsalim https://t.co/WbAQfZntMZ
— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 20, 2022
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