‘Beer With Bill Murray’ NFT Sells for $185K in ETH at Charity Auction

A non-fungible token (NFT) ticket to beer with actor Bill Murray sold for 119.2 ether (ETH), or around US$185,000, on Wednesday in a charity auction-style bidding war.

The NFT is a 1/1 collectible part of the actor’s “Bill Murray 1000” collection, created by The Shack in partnership with Coinbase’s non-fungible token marketplace. Only 82 of the 1,000 NFTs from the collection have so far been released (only the 1/1 comes with beer utility), with the cheapest edition to purchase on Coinbase’s (COIN) marketplace listed for 11 ETH, or around $17,000.

The auction drew up a bidding war involving six different JPEG collectors, garnering 60 bids before Coinbase user Brant Boersma came out on top.

Brant Boersma will have their date with the actor immortalized on canvas along with the blockchain. David Grizzle, the artist behind the collection, will be in attendance to paint a portrait of Brant Boersma and Murray together, which the holder gets to keep while, they have their beer.

“I wasn't sure what to think as I’m generally new to NFTs,” Grizzle said about the sale to CoinDesk. “I launched some of my collections on OpenSea earlier this year so everything that’s happening right now is just amazing.”

NFTs from the collection each include never-before-heard anecdotes and stories from Murray, according to the project’s website.

While Murray doesn’t appear to be much of a technologist, his NFT collection isn’t shabby. The “Groundhog Day” actor owns NFTs from top collections including CryptoPunks, Cool Cats, Deadfellas and LinksDAO.

Murray’s team will donate proceeds from the sale to Chive Charities, a non-profit that serves families of veterans and first responders, a Coinbase representative told CoinDesk.