Buyer defends paying $2.9m for ‘Mona Lisa’ of tweets

The buyer of Twitter's first ever tweet by its founder Jack Dorsey for $2.9m (£2.1m) sees it as a wise investment.

"It's a piece of human history in the form of a digital asset. Who knows what will be the price of the first tweet of human history 50 years from now," Malaysia-based Sina Estavi said.

Mr Estavi compared his newly-acquired tweet to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Experts agree that the first tweet from the Twitter founder on his own platform is a highly valuable asset.

Jack Dorsey's tweet, which said "just setting up my twttr," was first published on 21 March 2006 and was auctioned off by Mr Dorsey for Give Directly's Africa Response charity.

Mr Estavi, the chief executive of cryptocurrency firm Bridge Oracle, bought the tweet using ether, a rival currency to bitcoin.

It was sold as a non-fungible token (NFT), a unique digital certificate that states who owns a photo, video or other form of online media.

NFTs have become hugely popular this year, with expensive digital artwork also being sold this way.

"I believe it's an emerging market and it's just the beginning. All forms of digital arts and creations such as music, photos, videos, tweets and blog posts can be traded in the form of an NFT," Mr Estavi, a 29-year-old Malaysian national told the BBC.

He added that his investors and colleagues "are really appreciative and happy about this investment because they know the value and future price of this particular NFT and the impact it made on social media."