Those who bought NFTs only a few years ago could be regretting their choice.
The concept of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, has evolved.
At the height of the NFT hype cycle, it seemed as though digital artwork craze may sweep the globe.
NFT collections that caught the cultural zeitgeist, such CryptoPunks and Bored Apes, gained popularity in 2021 and 2022. A number of celebrities, including Madonna, LeBron James, Tony Hawk, and Justin Bieber, purchased artwork, making news in popular media.
At the MTV Video Music Awards, Snoop Dogg and Eminem gave a performance as the avatars of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
American socialite Paris Hilton discussed her passion for NFTs on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in January 2022.
A few months later, in May 2022, the market reached its peak, with a $526 billion market capitalization. The market's current valuation is 97% lower, at about $18 billion. How are the NFT investments doing as of right now?
CryptoPunk 5822
One of the biggest and most well-known NFT series ever offered is CryptoPunks. The 10,000-strong collection of 24x24 pixelated "punk" figures was introduced on the Ethereum blockchain by Larva Labs in 2017, and it played a significant role in starting the crypto art trend.
Christie's of London sold nine CryptoPunks at auction in 2021 for a total of $16.9 million. Christie's claims that Blade Runner, the London punk movement, and William Gibson's 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer served as inspiration for the CryptoPunk collection.
CryptoPunk 5822 sold for 8,000 Ether ETH, or $23.7 million, on February 12, 2022. Deepak Thapliyal, the CEO of Chain, a blockchain financial startup, bought it. A mere month thereafter, Thapliyal declined an offer of 10,000 ETH for his artwork, which could have yielded an almost instantaneous $2 million profit.
There are only nine extraterrestrial CryptoPunks in the world, including CryptoPunk #5822. Another alien CryptoPunk, #635, sold for $12.4 million in April 2024 when it was listed for 4,000 ETH, while in March 2024, alien CryptoPunk #3100 sold for 4,500 ETH. These transactions suggest that in just two years, Thapliyal's investment has nearly halved in value.
While interest in Ether has not decreased, it may have in CryptoPunks. The value of 8,000 Ethereum in February 2022 was only $23.7 million. 8,000 ETH is currently worth $26.6 million.
EtherRock 93
EtherRock is an assortment of 100 "Pet Rocks" that were created in 2017 using a free ClipArt picture. While they differ in color, every rock in the EtherRock line is the same size and form. The rarest EtherRock kind is blue, yet the majority of rocks are gray or brown.
EtherRock #93, a typical gray rock, sold for 420 ETH on November 2, 2021. Why did the buyer decide to part with the absurdly exorbitant amount of $1.8 million for this simple JPEG? The quantity of Ethereum paid could hold the key to understanding what motivated them.
Comparing prices isn't too difficult because EtherRocks are almost the same. Currently, an EtherRock is traded for about 200 ETH, which is about $750,000 to $800,000 less than it was in 2021.
That is a significant amount of money lost.
Bored Ape 8817
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is perhaps the NFT collection that did the most to promote the industry to the general public.
Bored Apes were huge in 2021 for a hot minute. They were just everywhere. Sports personalities, entertainers, and business moguls like Mark Cuban of Shark Tank were among the collectors. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who won an Oscar, even owned one. At least twelve were gathered by DJ and music producer Steve Aoki, however he has subsequently reduced his group to just seven.
Sotheby's said on October 26, 2021, that Bored Ape 8817 had sold for an unprecedented $3.4 million. The main selling point was that just 1% of bored apes had gold fur.
Around that time, other golden apes went for comparable prices. In September 2021, Bored Ape #3749, dubbed "The Captain," sold for $2.9 million, while Bored Ape #232 brought in $2.9 million, or 1,080 Ethereum. The Ape was later sold by its owner, Thapliyal, for 800 ETH, resulting in a tidy loss of 280 ETH, or $730,000 at the current price of Ether.
Golden Bored Ape #1726 sold for merely 275 ETH, or $665,000., on February 12. Many investors are waiting on unrealized losses in the millions of dollars if that transaction is representative of the worth of other golden apes.
Things worsen.
It's probable that investors who put money into less well-known businesses fared much worse. A dappGambl analysis from September 2023 showed that 69,795 of the 73,257 NFT collections it found had a market cap of 0 ETH.
DappGambl came to the conclusion that 95% of NFT collectors have zero-valued investments.
On the other hand, "rekt" collectors can counter that it is simplistic to just consider the NFTs' pricing. After all, art is not only for price speculationâit's for the soul. Beyond aesthetics, the blockchain technology supporting NFTs has also shown to be reliable from a technical standpoint.
Millions of NFT collectors may be taken away from them, but their digital certificate of ownership, which is irreversibly recorded on the blockchain and shows that the JPG you right-clicked and saved to your hard drive isn't truly yours, cannot be taken away.
