New NFT is Just a Picture of a Rock, Sells for $3 Million
Buyer insists it's a "metaphysical representation of digital permanence."
SILICON VALLEY, CA – In what cryptographic experts are calling the most bizarre digital transaction since the dawn of blockchain technology, an anonymous buyer has purchased an NFT consisting of nothing more than a photograph of an ordinary gray rock for a staggering $3 million in Ethereum cryptocurrency.
The sale, which occurred on the underground NFT marketplace “CryptoObscura” at 3:33 AM Pacific Time, has sent shockwaves through both the digital art community and conspiracy theorists who believe the transaction may be connected to an ancient occult ritual involving “digital soul binding.”
The NFT, titled “Granite Eternity #1,” displays a simple JPEG image of what appears to be a common sedimentary rock sitting on a wooden desk. However, sources close to the transaction reveal that this is no ordinary stone – it allegedly originated from a mysterious quarry in Montana that has been linked to several unexplained phenomena over the past decade.
The buyer, known only by the cryptographic wallet address “0xMysticStone,” issued a statement through an encrypted message on the blockchain itself: “This acquisition represents far more than digital ownership of a mere photograph. This rock embodies the metaphysical representation of digital permanence, serving as an anchor between our physical realm and the infinite possibilities of the metaverse. Those who dismiss this as mere folly fail to comprehend the cosmic significance of what we have accomplished here.”
Witnesses to the sale report strange occurrences during the transaction window. “I was monitoring the blockchain when the bid went through,” reported cryptocurrency day-trader Marcus Hendricks, who was logged into the platform during the purchase. “My screen started flickering with these weird symbols that definitely weren’t part of the normal interface. For about thirty seconds, instead of the usual transaction confirmation, there was this pulsing geometric pattern that made me feel dizzy just looking at it.”
The sale has attracted the attention of Dr. Elena Vasquez, a digital anthropologist at Stanford University who specializes in cryptocurrency culture and online ritualistic behavior. “What we’re witnessing isn’t just market speculation or artistic expression,” Dr. Vasquez explained during an emergency press conference. “The timing, the symbolism, the specific monetary amount – it all corresponds to documented patterns in digital occultism that have been emerging in certain blockchain communities. The fact that this transaction occurred at 3:33 AM is particularly significant in numerological circles.”
Further investigation has revealed that the Montana quarry where the rock allegedly originated has been the site of at least seven unexplained disappearances since 2019. Local authorities have repeatedly dismissed these incidents as unrelated mining accidents, but conspiracy researchers have noted that each disappearance occurred exactly 333 days apart.
The NFT marketplace CryptoObscura itself raises additional questions. The platform appeared online without warning just 72 hours before the rock sale, featuring only this single item for auction. The site’s registration information has been traced to a series of shell companies in jurisdictions known for harboring secretive technological experiments.
Perhaps most disturbing of all, blockchain analysts have discovered that the $3 million payment didn’t simply transfer to the seller’s account as expected. Instead, the Ethereum appears to have been permanently locked in a smart contract that distributes microscopic fractions of the currency to thousands of wallet addresses worldwide every time someone views the rock image online.
Attempts to contact the seller have been unsuccessful, though the wallet address continues to generate cryptic messages that appear automatically on various blockchain forums. These messages, when decoded using ancient cipher techniques, reportedly spell out coordinates pointing to locations across the globe where similar rocks have been photographed and uploaded to decentralized storage networks.
Industry insiders warn that this may be just the beginning of a larger phenomenon involving the intersection of digital assets and metaphysical manipulation that could fundamentally alter humanity’s relationship with both technology and reality itself.
The characters and events depicted in this story are entirely fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or to actual events is unintentional and purely coincidental.
