'It's going to be amazing': Rob Gronkowski talks NFT auction as collectible bids rise

The NFT auction launched by NFL star player Rob Gronkowski, popularly known as "Gronk," is underway and drawing bids. 

Gronkowski spoke Friday to CNBC about the effort, which was unveiled earlier this month. The collection auction is being hosted on NFT marketplace OpenSea and will end on March 13. 

"This is where we are now, the auction's live now, it's going to be a success, it's going to be amazing," Gronkowski told CNBC in an interview Friday. 

"My good friend has been talking about crypto money for months now, there's teammates talking about crypto money, I've had friends talk about crypto money," he went on to say. "And I never really understood it. You know, during the season, that crypto stuff, I'm live, I'm not digital during the season... I didn't know much about it."

Gronkowski said he was approached after the season, and those discussions led to the OpenSea debut.

In the interview, Gronkowski said that as of today he doesn't own NFTs on his own, but he indicated that he's "planning to" look into the market. 

The NFT collection commemorates the player's four Super Bowl championships and features five different trading cards. The cards were created by Black Madre, one of Gronkowski's favorite artists. For four of the cards, 87 pieces will be available.

The "crown jewel" of the NFT batch is the 1-of-1 Rob Gronkowski Career Highlight Refractor Card, which he digitally signed and celebrates all four of his championships. The owner of the card (there's only one) will have the opportunity to meet the player in person.

At press time, the 1-of-1 trading card had received a bid of 5.5 ETH -- an amount worth roughly $9,675 at press time -- after starting at 0.05 ETH.

Editorial image credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com