Satirical Chinese NFT project sells out as investors brush aside developers’ warning that they’ll ‘take the money and run’

Buyers snapped up the entire collection of cartoon profile sketches sold by the ‘Domestically made conscience’ NFT project on Wednesday

Secondary trading volume of these digital assets on the OpenSea NFT marketplace surpassed 200 ether, or about US$537,000, in just a few hours on the same day

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Published: 10:00pm, 23 Feb 2022Updated: 11:38pm, 23 Feb 2022

A satirical Chinese non-fungible token (NFT) project whose sole purpose is to “sell pictures” has done just that, as the team behind it expects to leave the business, highlighting the get-rich-quick mindset in this digital market where fraudsters and scams are growing in number.

The project, named “Domestically made conscience”, on Wednesday started selling a collection of 1,000 roughly sketched cartoon profile images. The project described these NFTs as “specifically prepared for Chinese people”, while confidently assuring that the Chinese team behind the project will not scam their fellow countrymen, according to its website.

“If you don’t have the money but really like the collection, we suggest that you right click and download the pictures,” the project’s website said. “Please don’t borrow money or sell your house to participate.”

Despite the apparent risks involved in an NFT project whose developers suggested that they will “take the money and run”, online buyers snapped up all the digital assets that went on sale within an hour on Wednesday. Each NFT was priced at 0.01 ether, or roughly US$27.

The landing page of the website run by Chinese NFT project ‘Domestically made conscience’. Photo: Handout

Secondary trading volume of all these digital assets on Ethereum blockchain-based OpenSea, the world’s biggest marketplace for NFTs, surpassed 200 ether – roughly equivalent to US$537,000 – in just a few hours on the same day.

It is a result that has fast-tracked the goals of the “Domestically made conscience” NFT project. Before the sale, the project said on its website that all of its NFT images, each of which was set up as a JPEG file, are expected to be sold within this first quarter. The team behind it also suggested that they are likely to leave the business in the fourth quarter.