In what could signal waning interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) hawked by athletes, artists, celebrities and tech stars, the famed inaugural Twitter post authored by co-founder Jack Dorsey seemed headed for an epic fail.

It has spent more than a week on the auction block at NFT marketplace OpenSea. The top offer was in the cryptocurrency Ether, its current value translating to just under US$10,000, according to the website.

The historic first tweet from the account of @Jack reads “just setting up my twttr”. Dorsey had originally sold his tweet as an NFT in Ether.

Malaysia-based entrepreneur Sina Estavi bought the tweet as an authenticated virtual object known as an NFT for US$2.9 million early last year, but put it up for auction last week hoping to get some US$48 million for it and give a chunk of the money to charity.

Estavi is among the early players in the NFT market, and is chief executive of blockchain platform Bridge Oracle.

The NFT trend includes a digital work by US artist Beeple selling for US$69.3 million at a Christie’s auction. Blockchain technology used in making the tokens allows people to own virtual objects with provable authenticity.