Despite the fact that the worldwide crypto market has tanked, celebrities continue to invest in Non-Fungible Tokens. While NFTs are presently outperforming many of the cryptocurrencies during this downturn, a large number of celebrity-controlled NFTs are now approaching worthless, selling for fractions of their original values—if they sell at all.
Paris, France: Athletes, film and music stars have all flocked to the NFT market to buy photographs of apes, promote corporate partners, and even establish their own art collections.
Celebrities are continuing to get involved in the cryptocurrency craze, despite the downturn in sales and values, as well as fraudulent operations.
End of the Ape NFT Century
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is credited with inventing NFT “collectables.” There are thousands of cartoon images in the algorithm-generated pictures. Hundreds of additional generations and millions of forgeries followed the initial ten thousand computer-generated images.
To fans in particular, they represent a status symbol, allowing them to join an exclusive society with the rich and famous. On January, Brazilian soccer star Neymar and tennis champion Serena Williams both shared their ape photos on the same day.
On television, TV talk show host Jimmy Fallon and socialite Paris Hilton revealed their chimps as well. To nft critics, these chimps represent everything that is wrong with the crypto world—basically worthless yet selling for staggering sums of money based on speculation.
At the end of the day, these people do not have ownership over the ape photographs in any real sense—anyone may download and use them. What they have is a digital certificate linked to the image. But it’s crucial to have the backing of a celebrity.
The apes, along with cartoon collections like CryptoPunks, appear to be weathering the crash better than other parts of the crypto sector.
Goals of Celebrities
Celebrities have delved even deeper into the nft business than just acquiring ape photographs, with plenty of people building their own NFT portfolios and getting varying results.
Grimes, an American musician, got in early, managing to bag almost $6 million for some fantasy-inspired art last year.
However, many of these NFTs have depreciated dramatically in value, selling for paltry fractions of what they were worth when they were created—if they are sold at all. Despite all of these issues, additional groups remain to be formed. Last year, John Cena sold only a few NFTs from a collection he had developed
At the cost of some of his fans’ approval, skateboarder Tony Hawk has been more effective in selling. Last year, after announcing that he would sell alternative versions of his popular routines as NFTs, responses ranged from “Stop this Tony” to “Tony, no, not you too.”
Since then, however, there has been no mention of the project from Hawke on Twitter. He has continued to trade in NFTs, however.
NFT’s in Business
The celebrity-NFT relationship’s oldest and most familiar pillar is the brand endorsement.
The latest celebrity to join the initiative is French megastar footballer Kylian Mbappe, who has become an “ambassador” and invested in start-up Sorare. The company offers a fantasy football game where players can purchase NFTs similar to sports cards. Serena Williams, Gerard Pique, and Rio Ferdinand are among the soccer
Not to be outdone, the world’s most famous athlete, Cristiano Ronaldo, recently revealed a collaboration with Binance, the planet’s largest cryptocurrency company. The ideas will apparently include designs created in collaboration with Ronaldo, who stated in a press release that he looked forward to “providing unrivaled experiences and access through this NFT platform.”
