A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution sold for $43.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Thursday (November 18).
The final bid of $41 million on the official first-edition printed copy of the U.S. Constitution, which was adopted by America’s founding fathers in Philadelphia in 1787, was much higher than Sotheby’s pre-auction estimate of $15 million to $20 million.
The total sale price, which includes fees, was $43.2 million.
An online cryptocurrency group who had crowdfunded over $46 million to bid for the document said on Twitter they failed to buy the document.
The ConstitutionDAO website says that those who contribute funds would become members of the Decentralised Autonomous Organisation, or DAO, but would not themselves have an ownership stake in the document if the group had the winning bid.
A DAO is a kind of online community which can use blockchain technology to allow members to suggest and vote on decisions about how it is run, for example by using crypto tokens to cast votes.
More than $46.6 million worth of funds, or 11,513 ether, had been paid into the project so far as of 3:26 p.m. EST, according to the crowdfunding website Juicebox. Juicebox’s website said its crypto crowdfunding is “experimental software” and advised user caution.
The ConstitutionDAO website said the funds raised will be kept in a wallet jointly-controlled by 13 team members and would be returned for refunds if the group lost the auction.
