22-year-old Indonesian boy makes $1M by selling NFT selfies on OpenSea

An Indonesian college student has reportedly become a millionaire by selling nonfungible token (NFT) versions of his selfies on the OpenSea NFT marketplace.

Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, a 22-year-old computer science student from Semarang, Indonesia, converted and sold nearly 1,000 selfie images as NFTs. According to Ghozali, he took photos of himself for five years — between the ages of 18 and 22 — as a way to look back on his graduation journey.

Uploading my photo into nft lolhttps://t.co/E3Q4sBmN26#NFT #opensea pic.twitter.com/rD51rdcpzp

— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 10, 2022

Ghozali selfies were taken sitting or standing in front of his computer, which was later converted into NFTs and uploaded to OpenSea in December 2021. The artist set the price for each NFT selfie at $3 without expecting interest from serious buyers. While monetizing his expressionless images, Ghozali said:

“You can do anything like flipping or whatever but please don't abuse my photos or my parents will very disappointed in me. I believe in you guys so please take care of my photos.”

Going against his wildest expectations, Ghozali’s NFT offering blew up as prominent members of Crypto Twitter showed support by purchasing and marketing the offerings.

Ghozali happened...the year of Gozali @Ghozali_Ghozalu pic.twitter.com/HKOw7FZddj

— Arnold Poernomo (@ArnoldPoernomo) January 12, 2022

With the rising popularity, one of Ghozali’s NFT sold for 0.247 Ether (ETH) on Jan 14. worth $806 at the time of purchase, according to AFP. The young entrepreneur also adds a touch of personalization by providing some background information along with the selfies, which adds to the rarity of the NFT.

every #NFT photo I take has a story behindThis photo was taken during the second corona vaccine https://t.co/pZfJKoKuc9

— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 11, 2022

At its peak, Ghozali’s selfie NFTs sold for 0.9 ETH, worth roughly$3,000, according to a Lifestyle Asia report. Ghozali's collection subsequently reached a total trade volume of 317 ether, equivalent to more than $1 million. The young artist also made his first tax payment on the basis of this income through OpenSea.

this is my first tax payment in my life https://t.co/VDa8KYYPGs

— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 14, 2022

Related: NFT sales and blockchain games continue to grow despite the recent market slump: Report

Despite the recent sluggish performance of the overall crypto market, the NFT marketplace and blockchain gaming industry continues to record high transaction volumes.

As Cointelegraph reported, DappRadar data shows that the number of UAW connected to Ethereum NFT DApps grew by 43% since Q3 2021. In addition, the money generated by NFT trading went from $10.7 billion in Q3 2021 to $11.9 billion in the first ten days of 2022.