So many celebrities are jumping on the NFT bandwagon. My take is that celebrities believe NFTs are the new “crazy art purchase,” only instead of actually attending a Sotheby’s auction, they can just go online and “buy” an NFT, post that NFT on their social media and they really think they’re doing something special. The fact that Gwyneth Paltrow is on this bandwagon should tell you a lot. The fact that Justin Bieber got on the bandwagon before Gwyneth should also tell you a lot. Before everyone bought all of those Bored Ape NFTS, Justin was buying NFTs of cartoon bears. But finally, he got on the Bored Ape bandwagon. He wanted a Bored Ape so much, he grossly overpaid:
Justin Bieber purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT for $1.29 million, paying a reported 300 percent more than its valued market price. The singer posted a photo of the new BAYC #3001 – which features a cartoon ape in a black T-shirt with tears in its eyes – to his Instagram on Monday, along with lyrics from his 2021 hit song “Lonely.”
“What if you had it all, but nobody to call, maybe then you’d know me. Cuz I’ve had everything but noones listening and that’s just f–kin lonely. #lonelyboredape,” he captioned the post shared with his 219 million Instagram followers.
Bieber, 27, purchased the NFT for 500 ethereum cryptocurrency, which is the equivalent to $1.29 million, according to Bitcoin.com. The estimated value of the NFT was $208,237 as of January 29, 2022, meaning the star bought the non-fungible token for nearly 300 percent above its valued price.
I can’t wait for the NFT bubble to burst. It’s gonna be so funny to watch these celebrities quietly delete their social media brags about NFT purchases. And to overpay like this on a dumb “Bored Ape” image? Come on. More money than sense. And what the hell is wrong with supporting actual artists who make art you could put on your wall, or a sculpture you could put on your table? There are so many artists who would love to have a wealthy patron supporting their work. Alas, all of the wealthy patrons are buying these stupid f–king Bored Apes.
Photos courtesy of Instar and Instagram.
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- North America Rights – New York, USA – 20210913 – Celebrities are pictured as they arrive at the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala. -PICTURED: Justin Bieber, Hailey Bieber -PHOTO by: /ABACA USA/INSTARimages.com -780148_235.jpg This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Instar Images LLC for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Instar Images LLC reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded
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- North America Rights – New York, USA – 20210913 – Celebrities are pictured as they arrive at the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala. -PICTURED: Justin Bieber, Hailey Bieber -PHOTO by: /ABACA USA/INSTARimages.com -780148_229.jpg This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Instar Images LLC for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Instar Images LLC reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded
I still can’t quite get a grip on what NFTs are. Does anyone have a very simple explanation?
Dan Olson did a great youtube video the other week, called Line Goes Up: The Problem with NFTs. Best primer I’m aware of!
Yes! Dan Olson did a great video. It’s long, but a good breakdown. Essentially, it’s all a scam. The only reason NFTs exist, is to prop up Etherium.
It’s digital image with an encrypted hash (a unique set of characters numbers/letters/symbols) that ties back to crypto currency. You’re assuming digital art will be worth more knowing it’s endlessly replicated. In the UK people buy license plates with low numbers as a status symbol. NFTs bank on the status of owning the original but it’s akin to anyone being able to have the low license plate number. Who cares if it’s original when it’s not unique.
Thank you for this. It’s all about the encryption. Not about the art. It’s also about crypto and having that currency that flies under the tax radar.
Funny enough… Lohan was the first big celeb to sell her NFT for 18k years ago and she was mocked for it. I’d bet she has a few more stashed away only appreciating in value.
Non-Fungible token. My honest opinion? It’s basically a scam…. They make an image, set a price and then someone buys it. It gains value then another person buys it just so they can “own” that specific image/token. It goes through a daisy chain and multiple buyers, multiple certificates, uses a ton of electricity which is horrible for the environment but in the end no one actually has a physical form of this artwork. They can set up virtual museums to show off their collection but it’s so damn extra. Ya know? Cryptobros are weird. It’s catching on though and I think some musical artists are now planning to release album art as NFT’s and depending on which ones you buy you can unlock/win alternate album art or extra concert tickets.
It…just seems so odd? Like when there was that Beanie Baby craze in ye olden days and grown adults were losing their minds over snagging the “rare ones” because they would increase so much in value. And even teenage me could not fathom how beanie babies could increase in value – like gold or silver or whatnot. I’m still very very confused.
ETA: should’ve scrolled down. T3PO just said the same thing.
And because of the blockchain, no one knows who the buyers really are. So you can sell an NFT to yourself (or one of your entities) at a high rate and then claim it as a lot of value before you sell it to someone else.
this gawker piece sums up my feelings on them https://www.gawker.com/money/what-are-nfts-explainer-apes
Also, the servers that run them use an insane amount of energy, making them bad for the environment. It’s the worst scam I’ve seen in years and these celebrities are dumb af for promoting/purchasing them.
Guess who I saw in a crypto commercial? Our favorite masshole, Matt Damon.
Simplest explanation is money laundering TBH.
So many things. First “worth” is a stretch. Second this is the new pogs/beanie babies/other fads except with those you got something tangible that wasn’t able to be replicated with a right click. Third wow way to use your celebrity for something good (intense sarcasm). And forth “a fool and his money are soon parted.”
I’m a painter who’s beginning to sell actual, physical canvases, with colors that glow in the light and textures you can feel, and my 50something brain doesn’t understand NFTs at all. And even if I did, I wouldn’t pay more than 15 cents for that cartoon. Can a younger person please explain this to me? 🤷
I’m older than you and nothing is new about the basics of this. Celebs aren’t necessarily connoisseurs or even at all knowledgeable. They’re just rich. Also, most of them love attention.Online art is easier to show off than actual physical paintings.
I can’t believe anybody with good sense would pay $1 for that ape.
Imagine the good these people could do with their money.
Sigh.
So having a lot of money makes people dumb?
The fact so many celebs are spending so much on what is clearly a scam shows they’re not paying nearly enough in taxes (if at all).
If didn’t see folding ideas’s youtube video / don’t have two hours of youtube in you, one of his contentions is that crypto whales literally cannot cash out unless enormous liquidity is injected into the market by newly bought-in suckers (hence the big push by celebs and crypto bros for ppl to spend $$$ on NFTs).
Lastly, If NFTs made you rich on their own, the wealthy would just shut up about them and hoard. After all, that’s what they always do. Instead they spend a lot of money and effort to convince as many other people to buy them, too…strange, isn’t it.
@JMONEY so it’s like MLM? 🤔
yes it’s like an MLM
i saw the Folding Ideas video too i recommend everyone give it a watch if they have 2 hours of youtube time (yes really…)
THIS. The NFT craze is basically like a ponzi scheme for jpegs. It’s so dumb.
i’m a burgoning artist and i saw alot of these NFT’s so i had a young work colleague explain it to me, and apparently its not about the art and what it represents it seems to be an off shoot of social media but community based so beiber spent 1.2 mill to belong to a yatch club and have bragging rights, the reason he spent so much is because he wasnt an early adopter, i think kids started it and one kid sold his for millions after his parents bought him one for 600$ so he made a mint. some guy Gary is predicting it will burst and then that is the right time to buy. or generate your own NFT community. loads of photographers are selling their work as NFTs so its going to be interesting going forward
NFTs started as a mechanism for artists and musicians to actually watermark/copyright their content via the embedded data. The earnest beginning was co-opted by the BAYC who put out content based on racist caricatures and cartoons. They also focused on creating an exclusive “community” around it so it felt like you were paying for some really special access. People were excited and intrigued because like a painting there could be only 1. The real beginnings and reasoning behind NFTs are very noble – us artists just want to control what we create. But some rich white bros of course turned it into what you see currently. The market will start to normalize but these aren’t going anywhere. Buying a good NFT now is actually a great investment.
What a fool.
Lol, wealth is wasted on the rich.
Are NFTs really just some sort of money laundering scheme?
Or pyramid scheme?
This is embarrassing.
Gwyneth invented yoga–she should know better.
I knew NFTs were a scam the minute my dudebro idiot BIL started bragging about them and how much money he was going to make with his ‘investments.’
It’s the beanie babies all over again… the minute someone exploited them for cash this is inevitable. And it will fade away like everything that has come before it and then we’ll get a documentary about how many people were duped and how a bunch of yahoos are now losing their homes because they thought they were smarter than everyone else…
OMG…Beanie Babies. Little bags of colored fake fur filled with beads, all of it made of petroleum by-product (basically plastic), accumulated by collectors who would swear up and down that they were sitting on a gold mine. Never underestimate the idiocy of people in large groups.
Some still have value, in the 90’s my friend gave me a the purple Princess Diana beanie and I lost it in a move. So regret losing that one.
Sounds like a way to launder money to me, anytime you see something stupid selling for that much over “face value” it raises red flags to me. But I also don’t know much about it other than the few articles I’ve read.
I will NEVER invest in nft and crypto.
He deserves every penny of it.
If you right click and save it. You can own it for free.