Trends put objects in the center of the scene for a while and then stabilize or disappear. Cryptocurrencies, however, have achieved massiveness and exponential growth of everything related to digital assets with few precedents in history. Now the new fashion is “tungsten cube”a metal cube that fits in the palm of your hand and weighs about 18 kilos.
It is worth clarifying: it is a metal cube that has no function. It is useless. Of course, at least it is a physical block and not from the metaverse.
A few weeks ago, social networks were filled with these (very dense) metal cubes and users of the crypto ecosystem appeared. They assure that “holding a tungsten cube is an experience like no other”. What makes them so special?
It all started, as it happens lately on the internet, with a meme in cryptocurrency circles and thanks to a now viral joke from CoinCenter’s director of communications, Neeraj Agrawalwho tweeted about a “global tungsten shortage.”
The tungsten or tungsten, also known as wolfram or tungsten, is a chemical element with atomic number 74 that is in group 6 of the periodic table of the elements. It is a rare metal in the earth’s crust, represented by the W on the periodic table.
weighs approximately 1.74 times more than lead, is often used in metal alloys to enhance hardness and strength. And because of this characteristic of concentrating so much weight in a small space began to go viral: mainly because of how it feels in the hands.
In addition, it is aesthetically very striking (although of course, it is still a cube without many features).
Who makes them and how are they obtained in Argentina?
The manufacturer Midwest Tungsten Service normally sells tungsten sheets and tungsten wires for industrial uses, but also sells the material in cube shape as a novelty to decorate the desktop.
After Agrawal’s tweet, Midwest Tungsten Service saw an increase in 300 percent on sales and its Amazon store inventory was cleared, the company told CoinDesk.
The company sells them in sizes ranging from a centimeter for 30 dollars, up to extra large 4-inch by 3 mil. The way to get them in the country is by eBaywhich ships to Argentina.
The cheapest would cost about 70 dollarswhich gives some 12 thousand pesos and coinstaking into account the price of the solidarity dollar.
Demand for an even larger bucket inspired the company to sell a 1,784-pound version as an NFT, which will allow the “owner” an annual supervised bucket-touching visit to Midwest Tungsten Service headquarters in Illinois.
The company’s director of e-commerce, Sean Murray, told NBC News that the increase “without precedents” in sales has been “incredible”, albeit overwhelming.
“We had to add additional staff and arrive a little earlier at times to handle the huge increase in demand while trying to maintain a high level of customer service,” Murray said. “Sometimes that has meant diving (not literally) into stacks of boxes looking for the one that was canceled a few minutes before the window pickup from a carrier,” he added.
A new fashion, thus, is installed among the circles of crypto assets.