Edward Snowden Sells His First NFT At Auction For $5.4 Million

As if the NFT space couldn’t get any more surprising, Edward Snowden, former CIA member and infamous NSA leaker, just closed out his own crypto art auction today with another historic sale.

Beginning yesterday, the NFT was listed on the crypto art platform Foundation, and after running for 24 hours (with some last-minute extensions pushing it over the usual time), it sold today for 2,224.00 ETH, which comes out to around $5.4 million.

FIVE POINT FIVE MILLION from PleasrDAO</a>. It feels like the whole staff of <a href="https://twitter.com/FreedomofPress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">FreedomOfPress is watching live, and we've never seen anything like this. This is more than a spectacle -- this is drama. All eyes turn to the dark horse. https://t.co/GOcrOiraXS

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 16, 2021

Titled “Stay Free,” the unique crypto art portrays Snowden’s face, based on a photo by visual artist Platon, embedded within the pages of the landmark court decision that the Patriot Act did not permit mass collection and surveillance of Americans' phone records by the NSA.

NEW: Our board president Edward Snowden</a> will auction an original NFT today, with all proceeds going to <a href="https://twitter.com/FreedomofPress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">FreedomofPress. Read more: https://t.co/spED4wPFsF

— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) April 15, 2021

According to Snowden himself, the proceeds of the auction will be donated to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, where he also sits on the board of directors for the non-profit.

At $5.4 million, this NFT is now among the highest-selling crypto art pieces to be sold so far, even among the recent craze that saw digital artist Beeple selling his collection for a record $69 million last month.

At this time, this is Snowden’s only NFT up for auction, so it’s unknown if he has any future plans for more.