by Lydia Ludmila 
- John Cena, an actor and professional wrestler, recently held a non-fungible token sale.
- Sale ended up being a ‘catastrophic failure,’ as only 37 out of 500 NFTs were sold, each for the price of $1k.
- The wrestler said he understands that the price was too high.
John Cena, a professional wrestler and actor famous around the world for his participation in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) recently decided to get into the crypto industry’s NFT sector. The WWE champion made his NFTs available to the fans last month, and the sale ended up being a ‘catastrophic failure,’ as Cena said himself.
The crypto industry’s NFT sector has exploded in 2021, becoming one of the most popular and most diverse sectors that crypto has ever seen. However, that doesn’t mean that every project ended up being successful. This is already a sign that the crypto industry is maturing, as you could hardly find an unsuccessful ICO back in 2016 when investors were willing to buy just about anything if it meant potential profits.
A failed NFT offering
Cena’s NFT sale is one of the best examples that, if the community doesn’t like the token, the sale is bound to fail. Speaking during the Florida Supercon 2021 last week, the actor/wrestler said that he now realizes that marketing his WWE NFTs as part of a package with physical collectibles was a mistake.
The physical collectibles in question included things like a shirt, a towel, a hat, wristbands, a belt, as well as an autographed picture. All in all, there were 500 gold-tier packages with the NFT, costing $1,000. However, only around 7.4% were purchased by the community, which is truly only a small fraction.
Cena admitted that the idea failed, and that he and his team were wrong to think that $1,000 was a fair price point. The NFT sale only ended up selling 37 NFTs, which he sees as a catastrophic failure, as mentioned.
For now, it remains unclear whether the community was deterred by the NFT price or by physical collectibles. According to Cena’s own estimate, digital artwork should be worth roughly $500 per piece, so doubling that price may have been the wrong move to make.
