An astonishing turn of events in the NFT market, which was once booming, saw pop sensation Justin Bieber’s BAYC NFT plummet in value by 95%. Bieber bought Bored Ape #3001 for 500 ETH back in January 2022 when it was roughly $1.3 million. But as of October 2024, his ownership of this NFT is worth a mere 29.95 WETH, or approximately $59,000. It features a “New Punk Blue” background, dark-brown fur, and a plain gray T-shirt- all traits considered rather common at the time compared to the rarer, more valuable Apes. Even upon purchase, Bieber’s investment raised eyebrows for its lack of distinguishing features that would make the steep price tag hard to substantiate.
Bieber’s loss is symbolic of the general downturn in the NFT market, which has been very much driven by the crash in cryptocurrency prices and the general loss of interest in digital collectibles. Once hyped as a way to own digital assets that would revolutionize the world, NFTs have seen values plummet across the board. The collection of BAYC was once the crown jewel in the space of NFTs, and it has certainly not been immune to this crash. It peaked in April 2022 alone, with a floor price of 153 ETH, the minimum to get into the collection. Today, that has substantially fallen off, with the general collapse of both the NFT market and investor enthusiasm.
Bieber isn’t the only one with such huge losses. Other celebrities who also bought into the Bored Ape craze, including Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, Eminem, and Snoop Dogg, were experiencing similar drops in their NFT investments. For instance, Paris Hilton purchased a Bored Ape for $350,000 in 2022; today, it’s valued at approximately $150,000. Jimmy Fallon paid $200,000 for his, now worth about $85,000. Eminem’s ape-or $1.2 million-worth has dropped in value by a little more than half, to around $500,000.
These public losses are representative of the extreme devaluation of the intact NFT market. Of the celebrities, Snoop Dogg has continued to be one of the most productive in the NFT area. He purchased several Bored Apes, including #6723, along with other NFTs via MoonPay back in 2021, a crypto payment platform facilitating purchases for other stars. Snoop has not just sat on such assets; he has gotten his NFTs into creative projects, from music videos to metaverse performances.
In 2022, he and Eminem showed up as their animated Bored Apes at the MTV VMAs– a surefire sign that some celebrities are finding creative ways to work NFTs into their personal brands, even as the market sags. There are reasons for the collapse of the NFT market. Big cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, have greatly been on the decrease in value, shaking investors’ confidence.
Presently, with the decrease in hype surrounding NFTs and questions over their usefulness, this sector has struggled to hold its interest. Interest in digital assets also waned when the fall of FTX and other platforms eroded confidence in the crypto ecosystem in general.
