Animoca Brands sells F1 race cars and event segment NFTs in game auction for $3 million

Game developer Animoca Brands has returned some good results from its recent F1 Delta Time auction, including record-breaking sales of race car non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and selling 800 event segment NFTs in less than half an hour.

The company announced the auction last week to mark the end of the F1 Delta Time and Formula 1 2020 season – and the race’s 70^th year.

Animoca Brands has today revealed the ultra-rare 70^th Anniversary Edition Apex race car NFT sold for 987,000 REVV which was equivalent in value to US$265,000 (A$342,000) at the time of sale on 9 March.

This auction result set a new record for the most expensive licensed F1 NFT and most expensive virtual car, surpassing F1 Delta Time’s “1-1-1” digital race car NFT auction result of US$111,111 (A$143,628) in 2019 and its sale of the Apex race event segment “Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2020 1A” of about US$223,000 (A$288,260).

That is, until four days later when the one and only Apex Australia Edition 2020 car sold in an aftermarket transaction for 1,221,221 REVV, worth about US$288,000 (A$430,000).

As well as auctioning off the 70^th Anniversary car NFT, the game was offering direct sales of 800 Rare Formula 1 2020 event segment NFTs, priced at 10,000 REVV each.

Animoca Brands has confirmed these event segments all sold out within 23 minutes, making a total of 8 million REVV or around US$1.8 million (A$2.32 million).

The Apex Australia Edition 2020 car

Over the weekend, Animoca Brands non-executive chairman Yat Siu revealed on his twitter account that F1 Delta Time racing team Superfast (@TonyGuoga and @LucaLamberti11) was the lucky buyer of the one and only Australian car, which he said has an “interesting NFT charity history”.

The colour and design of the car was inspired by traditional Aboriginal Australian art and represents “the roots of the land, reminding people of the value and importance of preserving our previous planet”.

The NFT was originally designed and auctioned to support Australia’s devastating bushfires of late 2019 with 100% of proceeds going to the Crypto Fire Alliance to support bushfire relief and recovery efforts. It ultimately sold in that auction for 51 ETH at the time, which is worth about A$119,000 today.

It was also a strong candidate for the charity category in the 2020 NFT Awards, losing out to Paris Hilton’s Kitty NFT.

F1 NFTs

Using the same technology as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, NFTs are blockchain-verified digital files that allow the holder to own digital assets, and prove they have the original version.

Mr Siu explained NFTs to Small Caps in a recent interview, describing them as being like having “property rights” in the digital world.

All race cars produced by F1 Delta Time are officially licensed by Formula 1 and are NFT digital collectibles that can be used in the game’s multiplayer racing modes.

Additionally, all car NFTs can be staked to generate REVV, the ERC-20 main utility token and in-game currency for Animoca’s branded motorsport blockchain game titles, passively over time.

In F1 Delta Time, there are five rarity and power levels for cars: Apex, Legendary, Epic, Rare and Common, with Apex being the most scarce and powerful.