Who would have thought that selling selfie NFT aka Non-Fungible Tokens could make an ordinary person suddenly become a billionaire? This is what is being experienced by Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali or who is known as Ghozali the “NFT billionaire”.

The 22-year-old man is known to have made approximately 1 million US dollars just by selling his NFT selfies on OpenSea.

So, what exactly is the story of “Ghozali Everyday”—the name of his work as well as the title he bears from the sale of the NFT?

The Story of Ghozali Selling Selfies NFT

As many have reported, Ghozali has converted and sold nearly 1,000 of his selfies as NFT. Ghozali said that he took selfies for 5 years, between the ages of 18 and 22 (range 2017-2021), as a way of looking back on his graduation journey.

In this case, Ghozali is known to take selfies, either in a sitting or standing position, in front of his computer. Then, he changed the photo to NFT, then uploaded it to OpenSea in December 2021.

The student of the Animation Study Program at the Faculty of Computer Science at Dian Nuswantoro University (Udinus), Semarang, Central Java, then set the price for each of his NFT selfies, at a value of 3 US dollars—without expecting interest from serious buyers.

“You can do anything like flip or whatever but please don’t abuse my photo or my parents will be very disappointed in me. I believe in you guys, so please take care of my photos,” wrote Ghozali while monetizing his expressionless image.

For your information, Ghozali himself is a Valorant and AOV gamer. On the other hand, as a 3D art artist, this man from Semarang, Central Java, also displays his work through the @ghozali_3d Instagram account.

Sold? Selfie NFT to Become a Billionaire

However, to his surprise, the NFT offering exploded when a prominent crypto member on Twitter showed support by buying and marketing the offer for the digital masterpiece. Ghozali’s increasing popularity then made one of his NFTs sold for 0.247 Ether (ETH) some time ago, which was worth 806 US dollars at the time of purchase.

Not only that, this alumnus of SMK Negeri 5 Semarang then added a touch of personalization by providing some background information along with his selfie, thus adding to the scarcity of the NFT.

In fact, a number of Ghozali’s NFT selfies are sold at a price of 0.9 ETH or around 3,000 US dollars. Not long ago, Ghozali’s NFT collection managed to penetrate a total trading volume of 317 ETH or the equivalent of more than 1 million US dollars. Through OpenSea, Ghozali did not forget to make his first tax payment on the basis of that income.

Apart from that, although the overall performance of the crypto market is known to be still sluggish, the NFT market and the blockchain gaming industry continue to record high transaction volumes. According to a Cointelegraph report from DappRadar data, the number of unique active wallets connected to Ethereum NFT decentralized applications is known to have grown by 43% since Q3 2021.

In addition, the money generated from this NFT trade also increased, from US$10.7 billion in Q3 2021, to US$11.9 billion only in the first ten days of Q1 2022.

Tax Directorate “Poke” Ghozali to Pay Tax

After successfully becoming a billionaire thanks to selling NFT selfies, Ghozali was also “knocked down” by the Indonesian Directorate General of Taxes (DGT). In this case, DGT asked Ghozali to make a Tax Identity Number (TIN) or Taxpayer Tax Number (NPWP).

According to the DGT, Ghozali must pay the tax object in the form of income tax. However, it provoked a reaction from most netizens, who immediately satirized the tax authorities’ quick action.

That’s because Ghozali himself sells his work through NFT and earns income in the form of crypto currency.

On the other hand, on January 13, Ghozali Everyday was known to be able to increase its trading volume by 280 ETH or around Rp. 13.3 billion.

In fact, a number of celebrities in the country such as Chef Arnold and Reza Arap also claimed to have bought Ghozali’s selfie work.

Selling NFT Becomes a New Trend

Ghozali’s success in selling selfie NFT has now provoked many netizens in the country to join in selling NFT through the OpenSea platform.

Not only selling selfie photos, these cyberspace residents also trade photos of food, even photos of their identity cards (KTP), such as selling on online store platforms.

Now, on the OpenSea platform, if you type in the keyword “food”, the results will immediately display a number of NFT photos of food from Indonesia, ranging from light snacks to “heavy” foods.

Various foods are sold as NFT, including martabak, rendang, noodle soup, to various cakes.

However, Indonesian netizens have reportedly also sold NFT ID cards and selfie photos together with their KTP at OpenSea. This has also become a conversation after several Facebook users complained about an account that uploaded a selfie photo of the identity card.

In response to this, the Director General of Dukcapil of the Ministry of Home Affairs even emphasized that the step of uploading photos of population documents carelessly, then selling them in cyberspace, is very vulnerable to being the target of criminal acts.

Want to follow like Ghozali? Yes, but still have calculations and always be careful!