Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren’t what they used to be.
At the peak of the NFT hype cycle, it appeared the whole world might be captured by digital artwork mania.
NFT collections such as CryptoPunks and Bored Apes captured the cultural zeitgeist, gaining traction through 2021 into 2022. Celebrities including Justin Bieber, LeBron James, Tony Hawk and Madonna acquired artworks, generating a string of headlines in mainstream media outlets.
Snoop Dogg and Eminem performed as Bored Ape Yacht Club avatars at the MTV Video Music Awards.
In January 2022, American socialite Paris Hilton spoke about her love of NFTs on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
The market topped a few months later, in May 2022, with a market cap of $526 billion. Today, the total value of the market is closer to $18 billion, a 97% drop. So, how are those NFT investments looking today?
CryptoPunk #5822
CryptoPunks represent one of the largest and most recognizable series of NFTs ever sold. Launched on the Ethereum blockchain in 2017 by Larva Labs, the 10,000-strong collection of 24x24 pixelated “punk” characters helped to pioneer the crypto art movement.
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In 2021, Christie’s of London auctioned a lot of nine CryptoPunks for $16.9 million. According to Christie’s, the CryptoPunk collection is inspired by the London punk scene, Blade Runner and William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.
This is not CryptoPunk #5822, it is only a JPEG. Source: CryptoPunks
On Feb. 12, 2022, CryptoPunk #5822 sold for 8,000 Ether (ETH) or $23.7 million. It was purchased by Deepak Thapliyal, CEO of the blockchain banking company Chain. Just one month later, Thapliyal turned down an offer of 10,000 ETH for his punk, which would have netted him a near-immediate profit of $2 million.
CryptoPunk #5822 is one of only nine alien CryptoPunks in existence. In April 2024, another alien CryptoPunk, #635, sold for 4,000 ETH or $12.4 million, and Alien CryptoPunk #3100 sold for 4,500 ETH in March 2024. These sales indicate that the value of Thapliyal’s investment has roughly halved in just two years.
Interest in CryptoPunks may have waned, but interest in Ether has not. In Feb 2022, the value of 8,000 ETH was only $23.7 million. Today, 8,000 ETH would be worth $26.6 million.
EtherRock #93
On Nov. 2, 2021, EtherRock #93 — a common gray rock — sold for 420 ETH. What inspired the buyer to pay the ultra-high sum of $1.8 million for this low-effort JPEG? Perhaps a clue to what influenced them lies in the amount of Ethereum paid.
All EtherRocks are more or less similar. Source: EtherRock
Since EtherRocks are almost identical, price comparisons are fairly easy to make. An EtherRock today trades hands for a price in the region of ~200 ETH, in the $750,000–800,000 range, or $1 million less than in 2021.
That’s a whole lot of money gone up in smoke.
Bored Ape #8817
It’s hard to think of an NFT collection that did more to announce the industry to the wider world than the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
For a hot minute in 2021, Bored Apes were huge. They were simply everywhere. Collectors included sports stars, musicians and business leaders like Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban. Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow even had one. DJ and music producer Steve Aoki collected at least a dozen, although he’s since trimmed his tribe to just seven.
On Oct. 26, 2021, Sotheby’s announced it had sold Bored Ape #8817 for a record-breaking $3.4 million. The big selling point was gold fur, an attribute shared by under 1% of Bored Apes.
Bored Ape #8817 sold for .4 million. Source: Southeby’s Metaverse
Other golden apes sold for similar sums around the period. Bored Ape #3749, “The Captain,” sold for $2.9 million in September 2021, while Bored Ape #232 sold for $2.9 million or 1,080 ETH. Its owner, Thapliyal, later sold the Ape for 800 ETH — a tidy loss of 280 ETH, or $730,000 at Ether’s current price.
On Feb. 12, golden Bored Ape #1726 sold for just 275 ETH or $665,000. If that transaction is indicative of the value of other golden apes, a number of investors are sitting on unrealized losses in the millions of dollars.
It gets worse
Investors who placed money in less high-profile projects are likely to have done even worse. In September 2023, a dappGambl report revealed that out of 73,257 NFT collections it identified, 69,795 of them had a market cap of 0 ETH.
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DappGambl concluded that 95% of people holding NFT collections have an investment valued at zero.
However, “rekt” collectors may argue that focusing on the price of NFTs alone is reductive. Art is for the soul, after all, not for mere price speculation. And beyond aesthetics to the technical domain, the blockchain technology that underpins NFTs has also proven sound.
You can take away NFT collectors’ millions, but you can never take away their digital certificate of ownership immutably recorded on the blockchain, proving the JPEG you right-clicked and saved to your hard drive doesn’t actually belong to you.