Benzinga | Mar 8, 2021 08:27AM EST

'Morons,' Banksy's Art Work Burned In Real Life, Sells For $394,000 As A Non-Fungible Token

"Morons," a now tokenized artwork by the legendary street artist Banksy, has sold for over $394,000 on the Open Sea NFT marketplace.

What Happened: The piece -- burned by an unnamed group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts last week -- was sold at an auction for 228.69 ethers (CRYPTO: ETH), which at press time traded at $1724.

Injective Protocol (CRYPTO: INJ) is reportedly the firm behind the buy. Mirza Uddin, a spokesperson for Injective Protocol said that the group is yet to decide on which charity will receive the proceeds from the non-fungible token auction of the piece, but said it would COVID-19 focussed, reported CoinDesk.

"Our aim is to bridge the world of traditional art with the world of NFTs. So, we'll definitely be doing more to uphold this ethos," said Uddin.

Why It Matters: Uddin said that a further event with a prominent artist is already is in the planning stage, as per CoinDesk.

The group that burned the Banksy piece claimed that "as long as the physical piece exists, the value of that piece will remain with the physical."

See also: How to Invest in Artwork

The supposed purpose of the burning was to forever memorialize the art in NFT. The original piece was purchased for $100,000.

NFTs have been garnering attention lately with Grimes, the partner of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, selling NFT digital artworks over $6 million. Others that have made similar moves include Beeple and Lindsay Lohan.

Litecoin (CRYPTO: LTC) creator Charlie Lee warned against the frenzy surrounding NFTs last week and said that NFT is not artwork.

Price Action: The apex cryptocurrency Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) traded 1.23% higher at $50,355.90 at press time.