No One Bought Chevrolet's 2023 Corvette Z06 NFT

The 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 included in the auction had a Z07 package and carbon wheels.

The 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 included in the auction had a Z07 package and carbon wheels.Photo: Chevrolet

The Corvette Z06 NFT that Chevrolet tried to auction off received a total of zero bids during a four-day bidding period, from June 20-24. This was Chevy’s first attempt to break into the boom market of non-fungible tokens, but not even a real-life 2023 Corvette Z06, which was included in the auction, could redeem this NFT.

The auction was for a “unique curated NFT artwork” of the upcoming Corvette Z06, courtesy of the artist xsullo. What made it unique was mostly the car’s “Minted Green” paint, and Chevrolet even claimed it wouldn’t use the color for any production model of the 2023 Corvette Z06. I guess Minted Green might end up as a Z06 option, anyway, now that the Corvette NFT auction was a bust.

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Photo: Chevrolet

We could chalk it up to Chevrolet’s bizarre choice to only accept bids in coins of Ethereum — a cryptocurrency with a value that crested at $4,800. According to Corvette Blogger, the value of Ethereum was $1,160 per coin when bids opened for the Corvette NFT, and bidding had started at 206 ETH. That put the starting price of the ’Vette at $238,960, which is a lot more than the $90,000 the 2023 Corvette Z06 will reportedly cost.

So, even though the real-life Corvette that the NFT came with had exclusive paint, a Z07 performance package, carbon wheels and a cheesy commemorative plaque, the price to “own the color” was still too high.

The auction’s host, SuperRare, claimed some people missed their chance to bid due to “the craziness of NFT.NYC,” an — oh, God — cryptocurrency conference where some folks reportedly caught COVID-19. SuperRare extended the auction by 24 hours after it closed for the first time with zero bids, and it closed for a second time with zero bids.

Chevrolet said the experience was “educational” in a statement to Chevrolet Blogger. And this lukewarm — or rather, ice cold — reception to the Corvette Z06 crypto-only auction could be a sign that we may soon be free of NFTs and “ETH” coins and the blockchain. Not long ago, it seemed like the only question that applied to any NFT, with or without a Corvette, was what the price ceiling would be.