France's 'Truffle of the Year' Just Sold in a Record-Breaking NFT Auction

Truffles – the luxurious mushroom relatives that bring their distinctive earthy richness to pasta, potatoes, and more – are among the most prized ingredients grown on the planet. Bernard Planche of Sarlat, France, has been cultivating and hunting for truffles for decades. When he discovered a 1.265 kilogram winter black truffle earlier this month – one of the largest specimens ever recorded in Europe – he knew he had something extremely valuable on his hands. So he did what so many enterprising business people have done recently: he decided to sell the truffle in an NFT auction. The sale has now set a new record for largest truffle NFT ever recorded – both in the size of the truffle and the size of the price tag.

According to Truffle.Farm, an industry tracker, the average 2021 retail price of a Tuber Melanosporum was $721.25 per kilo. Based on that, a total estimate for the large boy – referred to variously as the ‘truffle of the year’ and The Big Truffle – would come in around $865.50. The buyer purchased Planche’s NFT on OpenSea for 3.41 WETH, or the equivalent of $10,694.92.

The anonymous bidder, identified publicly only as “5DCAB1,” got more in the deal than just The Big Truffle. The NFT represents a one-of-a-kind package deal including a day of private truffle hunting with Planche on his estate, followed by a special chef-prepared dinner. The NFT also reportedly transfers the “digital rights” to the truffle, though it is not clear what that would entail. 

 According to Forbes, Planche created the truffle NFT because “he saw an opportunity to use the unusually large truffle to shine a light on his beloved region and profession.”

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