During the NFT craze that struck the celebrity class earlier this year, it was purported that the non-fungible tokens were the future of art collecting, allowing individuals to own a digital file in the same way they might own a physical painting. That prediction has turned out to be a bit faulty, at least in the medium term, and for proof look no further than the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT purchased by Justin Bieber back in January.
In January, Justin Bieber paid $1.3 million on a Bored Ape NFT. Technically he paid 500 ETH which at that time was worth $1.3 million.
Today, that value of that very same monkey JPEG has dropped to a stomach-lurching fraction of what it once was. The floor price for Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs is now at 57 ETH . That comes to a little less than $65,000 American dollars.
That’s not even the lowest the value of a Bored Ape NFT has dipped in recent days, having at one point sunk to below $60,000 before notching back up to its current position.
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Bieber paid 500 ETH for Bored Ape #3001. That purchase has lost at least 95% of its value.
And that wasn’t the only NFT Bieber bought. A month after the aforementioned purchase, Justin paid $444,000 for another monkey JPEG. Today that JPEG is also presumably worth around $65,000.
Put it all together and Justin paid a combined $1.74 million for two JPEGs that today are worth a combined $130,000.
Justin isn’t the only celebrity who got swept up in the Bored Ape Yacht Club fad. Jimmy Fallon, Paris Hilton, Eminem, and Snoop Dogg all bought pieces in the NFT collection when it seemed like the sky was the limit for NFTs.
As it turned out, the sky was not the limit. As the world economy cooled and rationality returned to markets, most people have subsequently remembered that it’s dumb to spend money on monkey JPEGs that can be copy/pasted for free.