Celebrities flock to NFT. Who is the real gold digger?

Three consecutive months of decline have resulted in Bitcoin's worst start to the year since 2018. As of January 20, 2022, Bitcoin has fallen 9% this year. Some analysts pointed out that as the Federal Reserve reduces its liquidity injection, the crypto market may continue to face pressure.

In sharp contrast to the cold reception of the crypto market, the NFT market on the other hand is booming. Dune Analytics data shows that by January 19, OpenSea's transaction volume had reached $4.112 billion, easily breaking the previous high of $3.426 billion set in August last year.

Since January 1, NFT projects such as PhantaBear, The Heart Project, and MetaRim have exploded in popularity. In just a few days, the returns have increased by several times or even dozens of times, which is staggering. The common point of these projects is that they all have celebrities participating. For example, PhantaBear, which has been dominating the charts for some time, has attracted a number of Chinese music stars such as Jay Chou, JJ Lin, and Wilber Pan. Under the influence of the star halo, the project gained huge exposure in a short period of time, followed by a surge in trading volume and floor price.

It is reported that a number of well-known celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Tom Holland, Xu Jinglei, Shawn Yue, Huang Licheng, and Lu Han have posted their NFTs on social platforms. Today, OKLink takes this opportunity to list the celebrities who have "entered the circle":

• Did the celebrities reap huge profits or suffer a disastrous defeat from their NFT investments?

• Which projects have won their favor?

• Are the celebrities hodlers who just hold and don’t sell, or are they traders who have traded and cashed out?

• Will celebrity NFTs be the next trend?

• Can ordinary people follow celebrities in investing?

Celebrity wallets, check out!

In the past few days, we have searched the wallets of 18 celebrities including Bieber, Curry, Eminem, Jay Chou, JJ Lin, and Luhan. Here are our thoughts.

How to use celebrities + NFT

We believe that there are currently four ways to open it, namely "Newbie stage: simply promote new projects", "Investment budding: buy/acquire well-known NFTs", "Something: issuing and purchasing go hand in hand", and "Advanced players: playing with NFTs".

• Newbie stage: simply promote new projects

Celebrities at this stage may have a vague understanding of NFT. They do not participate in existing NFT projects, but choose to support new projects. Most of the reasons for their "end" are that they are entrusted by others to contribute their personal influence to the project.

There are 6 stars in this stage, namely Jay Chou, Edison Chen, Tom Holland, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Wilber Pan, and Ashin of Mayday.

Mayday's Ashin is the one who had the simplest operation. He posted a PhantaBear NFT on Instagram on January 6, and the work was sent to him directly by "A63730". Considering that "A63730" has sent NFTs of the project to many celebrities who posted PhantaBear, the account should be the project's account. After receiving the NFT, Ashin did not mint, bid, put it on the shelves, or buy and sell it until January 20.

At first we thought that Pan Weibo and Ashin would behave exactly the same, and that they were also entrusted by others to post on social media and that was the end of it. But just 19 hours ago, Pan Weibo bought the NFT of Lil' Heroes by Edgar Plans for 2.1 ETH.

The project is the latest work of Spanish artist Edgar Plans. It currently ranks 7th on the OKLink NFT project ranking with a 7-day transaction volume of US$25.3 million and an average daily price of US$6,555.

Although PhantaBear became an instant hit with the help of Jay Chou's influence, judging from Jay Chou's wallet, his understanding of NFT is obviously at an early stage. Jay Chou did not mint PhantaBear directly, but obtained it through a transfer from "A63730". In addition, 4 days ago, he also received 2 Hearts from the founder of The Heart Project, one of which Jay Chou forwarded to "CE50F3".

What is a bit surprising is Edison Chen. Although he spoke in the community on January 10, saying that he might release a joint NFT project with Jay Chou before the end of the year, and he shared the NFT collectibles project The Heart Project on September 23 last year, and attached a text about his first attempt to enter the digital world, he has not minted, bid, forwarded, etc. during this period. His wallet seems to only serve as a carrier for receiving NFTs given by the project party.

Holland’s address was tracked on December 27 after he posted inBetweeners, an NFT project created by Gian Piero, a designer who has a close relationship with Bieber. Records show that he minted 4 inBetweeners (it is also possible that the project owner directly wrote his address into the contract and sent it), and received 1 inBetweeners with the image of a cartoon Spider-Man.

Jean-Claude Van Damme’s behavior is quite interesting, and we will elaborate on it in the following section “On-chain data tells you interesting stories about celebrities”.

• Investment bud: Buy/acquire well-known NFTs

When investment reached its embryonic stage, celebrities had a certain understanding of NFT and knew the popular projects in the circle. They would join in by buying NFT themselves or having others forward it, but the frequency of operation was not high.

Stars in this phase include Jimmy Fallon, Lu Han, Chen Bolin and Britney Spears.

On November 14 last year, Jimmy Fallon changed his Twitter profile picture to a work by Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). The NFT was purchased by the NFT whale "moonpay.eth", which currently holds a position worth US$8.36 million, for 46.6 ETH and then transferred to him.

On November 11 last year, Lu Han changed his avatar to Kaiju Kingz, which he bought for 1.999 ETH (about $9,336), when the floor price of the project was 1.1 ETH. Kaiju Kingz is an NFT digital collectible created by Augminted Labs and launched on October 13, 2021. Inspired by Cyberkongz, Kaiju Kingz was one of the most popular NFT works in October last year, with a peak daily transaction volume of $22.67 million.

OKLink data shows that the average daily price of Kaiju Kingz hit an all-time high of US$25,540 on October 25, 2021, and is currently reported at US$5,724, with a floor price of 1.3 ETH.

Judging from the data, Lu Han's purchase did not bring high popularity to Kaiju Kingz. The peak period of the project's transaction volume occurred in October, and Lu Han, who entered the market in mid-November, did not seem to catch up with the good times. As of January 20, the floor price of the project was 1.3 ETH, and the daily transaction volume was less than 130,000 US dollars, ranking 77th.

The initial news about Chen Bolin was that he changed his Instagram profile picture to a BAYC work on June 21, 2021. This was transferred to him by Huang Licheng after 0.08 ETH Mint on May 1. The current floor price of BAYC is 78 ETH. On August 31, Chen Bolin received a MAYC airdrop for holding BAYC, so he changed his profile picture to MAYC. The floor price of this project is 15.5 ETH.

In addition to Mint, Chen Bolin has also had experience in bidding, listing, canceling, and purchasing NFTs, but there has been no selling behavior so far.

Britney Spears has the widest holdings among the four and is relatively more inclined to follow popular artists. Her most recent transaction took place on January 10, 2022, when she bought alien fren for 3.47 ETH.

In addition to BAYC and MAYC, her wallet also holds NFTs such as Doodles, RTFKT CLONE X + Murakami, and The Heart Project. Unlike other artists who may receive NFTs transferred from others, all of Xiao Tiantian’s holdings were purchased by herself. The above transactions occurred on January 1 and January 10, respectively.

In the past seven days, Xiao Tiantian holds NFTs from three of the top 10 projects on the OKLink NFT trading volume rankings (BAYC, MAYC, and CLONE X). According to OKLink statistics, she has spent 129.6 ETH (about 465,000 US dollars) on NFTs.

She has not bid, listed or sold NFTs, and currently only has purchase records. Earlier, it was reported that she started using crypto assets in 2014 in order to conceal her purchases from her father who supervised her.

3) Something: Issuance and purchase go hand in hand

In this stage, celebrities recognize NFT, have issued limited edition NFTs, or participated in matters related to NFT and the metaverse, and will also purchase NFT projects. There are three celebrities in this stage, namely Eminem, Bieber and Curry.

Eminem bought BAYC for 123.45 ETH (about US$462,000) on December 31, 2021. He had previously released the "Shady Con" NFT series on Nifty Gateway and raised US$1.78 million through sales.

On December 23, Bieber changed his Twitter profile picture to an inBetweeners work, which was designed by Gian Piero, the designer of his personal fashion brand Drew House. Gian Piero is also responsible for the design of Bieber's music peripherals.

Currently, Bieber owns 21 inBetweeners works, of which he minted 24, forwarded 4, and received 1, 10 of which are Legendary level. In addition to inBetweeners, Bieber has not purchased any other NFTs.

In the past seven days, the transaction volume of inBetweeners was 2.021 million US dollars, ranking 59th. Its transaction peak occurred on December 29, which was 4.26 million US dollars. This was close to the time when Bieber and Holland announced their "entry" into inBetweeners. It can be seen that the influence of the two brought about a small peak in inBetweeners transactions. The floor price of inBetweeners once exceeded 2 ETH.

But the good times didn’t last long. In just 20 days, the average daily price of inBetweeners dropped to $1,641, down 80% from the high point of $8,310 on December 29. Its floor price also dropped to 0.479 ETH, which is almost the same as the mint price of 0.45 ETH.

On November 19 last year, Bieber held a 30-minute Metaverse concert and sang his latest album "Justice".

The news about Curry's entry into NFT dates back to last year. At the end of August 2021, Curry purchased BAYC and BAKC for 55 ETH and 5.6969 ETH respectively. His latest transaction took place on January 11, 2022, spending 1.1299 ETH and 0.29 ETH respectively to purchase the LinksDAO NFT series.

The OKLink LinksDAO page shows that after Curry bought it, the project's average daily price and transaction volume have increased significantly, and the floor price has been pushed up to 0.72 ETH, but the celebrity effect only lasted for 2-3 days. The floor price has now dropped to 0.62 ETH, a drop of 14%.

Currently, Curry holds NFTs such as BAYC, MAYC, Rumble Kong League, and Pudgy Penguins, with a total value of more than $350,000. From August last year to now, Curry has minted, purchased, and forwarded, but has not bid, put on the shelves, or sold any NFTs in his hands.

Like Eminem, Curry released five "Genesis Curry Flow" sneaker series on December 24 last year. The current floor price is 0.14 ETH, and the total transaction volume has exceeded 2,100 ETH.

4) Advanced players: Play with NFT

As the highest level of celebrity NFTs, celebrities at this stage are highly sensitive, well-informed about the latest information and hot projects, have strong investment analysis capabilities, are well versed in the logic of popular projects, have a high degree of accuracy in selecting targets, and are proficient in NFT transactions, including bidding, listing, buying and selling, and have performed multiple and frequent operations.

Stars in this stage include Huang Licheng, Rudy Gobert, Xu Jinglei, Shawn Yue and JJ Lin.

It can be seen that among the 7 measurement dimensions we gave, 4 people have performed all the behaviors, and 1 person has only never bid, which shows the frequency of their on-chain transactions and their familiarity with NFTs.

If we look at Asian stars, Huang Licheng is definitely the big brother. The admission of JJ Lin and Xu Jinglei is related to him. The BAYC that JJ Lin first announced on social media was given by Huang Licheng, and Xu Jinglei's 19 BAKCs and 1 BAYC were also given by Huang Licheng.

In terms of the top projects alone, Huang Licheng holds 56 BAYC, 60 BAKC and 125 MAYC. Huang Licheng's most successful NFT investment is BAYC. He minted 120 BAYC as early as the mint stage on May 1. Since then, Huang Licheng has purchased a total of 91 BAYC and sold 134 BAYC.

From the on-chain data, he bought BAYC #2087 for 42 ETH, held it for 3 months, and sold it at a high price of 769 ETH, making a profit of 17 times. In addition, Huang Licheng minted BAYC #6444 at 0.08 ETH on May 1, held it for 3 months, and then sold it for 169.69 ETH, with a return rate of more than 2,120 times.

Currently, Huang Licheng's total holdings are worth US$15.93 million. He holds 2,948 NFTs and has made 1,229 purchases and sales. The total purchase transaction amount is US$20.66 million, the total sale transaction amount is US$11.64 million, and the profit is US$6.91 million (Note: Since many of Huang Licheng's NFT projects are directly minted or airdropped and not listed for sale, and his newly purchased projects may be far higher than the floor price due to differences in properties, their value cannot be calculated for the time being, and the actual profit is much greater than this figure).

Since JJ Lin publicly announced that he holds BAYC on October 18 last year, he has become increasingly active in the NFT field. He once purchased CryptoPunks for 125 ETH, and also purchased virtual plots in The Sandbox and Decentraland.

JJ Lin's most recent transaction took place on January 19, when he purchased GRAYCRAFT2 for 0.25 ETH and 0.26 ETH respectively. On January 16 and January 17, he also purchased the popular C-01 Official Collection and Lil' Heroes by Edgar Plans for 1.3987 ETH and 2 ETH respectively.

These two projects ranked 4th and 6th in the OKLink NFT ranking in terms of transaction volume in the past 24 hours, with floor prices of 1.097 ETH and 2.085 ETH respectively.

JJ Lin has a sales record. He sold Bored Bunny #2086 for 2 ETH on January 9. He bought the NFT for 0.749 ETH 4 days ago and made a profit of 3,412 US dollars on the 5th.

From the data on the chain, JJ Lin has had dealings with an NFT whale. He transferred his 1.8 ETH purchase of Eroding and Reforming Bust of Rome (One Year) to this NFT whale with a holding value of $11.54 million. On January 6, JJ Lin showed his PhantaBear NFT on Instagram.

Because of her relationship with her younger brother Huang Lixing, Xu Jinglei received gifts from multiple NFT projects from Huang Lixing, including but not limited to BAYC, BAKC, MAYC, and Heroes of Evermore.

Currently, Xu Jinglei's holdings are worth $1.56 million, and she holds a total of 479 NFTs, of which HappyLand Gummy Bears is her largest NFT project. She has made 282 transactions in total, the most recent of which was on January 19, when she bought MAYC for 17.777 ETH.

Judging from recent transaction records, Xu Jinglei has purchased 12 BAKCs and 2 MAYCs since January 1. Interestingly, on the day JJ Lin purchased GRAYCRAFT2 and the day before, Xu Jinglei sold 4 NFTs of the project at a price of about 0.255 ETH, and she currently holds 10.

Since August 8, 2021, Xu Jinglei has sold 129 NFTs, 120 of which were sold for less than 1 ETH. Her largest sale was Fluf World #8571, which she bought for 4.9 WETH on August 10 and sold for 13.5 ETH five months later.

Among celebrities, Shawn Yue should be considered as an early adopter. He changed his Instagram profile picture to a CryptoPunk work on April 29. At the same time, Shawn Yue auctioned some of his NFTs, such as CryptoPunk #9997, BAYC #8746, and Meebit #6337, at Christie's to celebrate his 40th birthday.

Among them, CryptoPunk #9997 was sold for HK$33.85 million (approximately US$4.346 million), and the NFT was purchased by "0E4437" for 99.99 ETH (approximately US$169,800) and then forwarded to Shawn Yue's "279679" address. The investment yielded a return of 24.6 times.

On November 2, Shawn Yue posted an 11-minute video on Weibo, in which he shared his purchase and research of NFTs. On January 14, he posted a picture of Frankenstein on Twitter, with the caption "NFTs are coming soon."

Data shows that the current value of NFTs held by Shawn Yue is US$1.8 million. He has 68 NFTs and has initiated 99 transactions. The total purchase value is US$1.755 million, the total sale value is US$2.812 million, and the profit is approximately US$2.857 million.

The most recent transaction took place on January 3, when Shawn Yue sold MAYC for 25 ETH. Since December 27, Shawn Yue has sold 4 MAYCs for a total of 95 ETH, and these 4 MAYCs were all forwarded to Shawn Yue after the "944D32" Mint. It is speculated that they may be from Shawn Yue's other addresses.

Because of holding CryptoPunks, Shawn Yue received an airdrop of Meebits. In four days in August, he sold 19 Meebits and earned 79.3 ETH.

Currently, Shawn Yue holds 9 CryptoPunks, 5 MAYCs, 6 Meebits and other NFT projects. In the middle, he also bought 8 BAYCs, spending a total of 51.938 ETH, and finally sold them for 141 ETH, with a profit of 171%.

Rudy Gobert, like Curry, is an NBA star. His current holdings are worth $385,000, with a total buy volume of $390,000 and a total sell volume of $96,000, with a profit of about $91,000. There are 90 NFTs in the wallet, and 51 transactions have been initiated. The most recent transaction occurred on January 18, 2022. He sold Wolf Game's Wolf #6072 for 13.37 ETH on January 18. This was minted at a price of 0.06942 ETH, with a profit of 191.5 times.

On January 15, Rudy Gobert sold the CryptoSkull (0.3 ETH) he bought on January 11 for 2.27 ETH, a 6.6-fold increase.

Judging from the on-chain data, Rudy Gobert's NFT investment is more youthful. For example, he has 16 Wolf Game-related NFTs, 9 CryptoSkulls, 9 inBetweeners, and 3 Clayings. Of course, he also holds 1 BAYC and 2 MAYC.

On-chain data tells you interesting stories about celebrities

• The hottest projects

Among the 18 stars counted, we found that the top three holdings were Bored Ape Yacht Club (10th), Mutant Ape Yacht Club (8th) and PhantaBear (6th).

We analyzed the reasons for BAYC's success in the article "OKLink Annual Insights 03｜Lego components of the metaverse: NFT+GameFi, six major trends in 2022". Investing in it is more like hitting the two hot sectors of social and finance. The strong community connection and endless new gameplay also give it a stronger narrative ability than CryptoPunks.

The current floor price of CryptoPunks is 61.95 ETH, while the floor price of BAYC is 78 ETH, which successfully flips CryptoPunks. Since holding BAYC can get MAYC, we can see that the MAYC in many celebrity wallets is obtained from airdrops. Unlike the usual practice of selling immediately after receiving airdrops, after half a year, the 44% holding ratio shows that these celebrities are optimistic about MAYC.

Since most of the stars included in this collection are Asian stars, the recently released PhantaBear took the third place with 6 stars holding shares.

• Who doesn’t want to be friends with Huang Licheng?

According to the on-chain data, since May 1, 2021 (the most recent one was issued on January 10), Huang Lixing has issued a total of 49 BAYCs, and in the known list, Chen Bolin, Jay Chou, JJ Lin, and Xu Jinglei are on the list, of which 1 is Legendary, 2 are Rare, and 1 is Classic. According to the current floor price of BAYC of 78 ETH, Huang Lixing has issued at least 312 ETH worth of BAYC to these four stars alone.

Just ask yourself, who wouldn’t want to have a friend like Huang Licheng who likes to send BAYC to others when he has nothing to do?

• "Newcomer" Jean-Claude Van Damme actually sold "Jay Chou"?

On January 2, Hollywood legendary star Jean-Claude Van Damme changed his Instagram profile picture to a PhantaBear NFT work, a PhantaBear marked as Legendary. The bear is wearing a Tang suit, a red hat and red glasses, holding a gold ingot in his hand, with a strong Chinese style.

On the 7th day after Jean-Claude Van Damme received the NFT, as a newcomer who had never traded NFTs before, he actually listed the bear for sale at 33 ETH and successfully sold it. On the same day, the suspected project address "A63730" gave him another PhantaBear with the attribute of Normal, but this time Jean-Claude Van Damme did not list it for sale.

NFT is sweeping the entertainment industry, will celebrity NFT be a new trend?

At present, there are two main types of celebrity participation in NFT. One is to directly/indirectly issue new projects or increase holdings in a project. This may be a business undertaken by the team and one of the ways for celebrities to increase their income. The purpose is to realize traffic monetization, and the short-term popularity of the project in the primary and secondary markets is closely related to the influence of the celebrity himself. As long as the traffic is large enough, even though there may be multiple levels of loss in the middle, it can still create waves. The celebrity's "ability to bring goods" can be well quantified through NFT sales, total market value, floor price, etc.

The second is personal investment or hobby, the purpose of which is to increase the diversity of the investment portfolio, similar to celebrities' investment in real estate, catering, etc., which is one of the ways to generate income.

There is a relatively obvious circle phenomenon when celebrities enter the NFT market. For example, the release of PhantaBear has triggered a number of celebrities such as Jay Chou, JJ Lin, Mayday Ashin, and Wilber Pan to post on social media. Previously, inBetweeners also showed the friendship between Bieber and Holland...

Through these "circles of friends on the chain", it is not difficult to find that most of the star teams are strengthened by the "old leading the new" model. The reason behind "banding together" is, first, the huge IP effect and fan base that ordinary people do not have, and second, to expand their influence and have the motivation to monetize the above traffic.

Hong Kong and Taiwan star Huang Licheng should be the "mainstay" among them. He has a strong encryption attribute. Not only does he have his own independently run DeFi project, he is also a well-deserved NFT whale, holding many top NFT project assets. Considering that he has successively given valuable NFTs to Xu Jinglei, JJ Lin, Chen Bolin and others, he is very likely to be their guide to investing in NFTs.

Looking at the development trend of NFT, from CryptoPunks, BAYC, MAYC, to PhantaBear, inBetweeners, and CryptoSkulls, people's pursuit of aesthetics has not shown a significant increase. Instead, they are paying more and more attention to social network connections and the appreciation of social capital.

The projects discussed in the community have shifted from "excellent design", "reliable team" and "clear route planning" to "XXX bought into the project" and "which celebrities have been attracted to the community". The combination of celebrities and NFTs also happens to cater to the current mentality.

Celebrity NFTs do not carry the "naked" money like financial products, but they have room for appreciation. At the same time, the sense of identity shared with celebrities and the sense of belonging that form a bond in the chaotic Internet relationships is a new social experience that is more three-dimensional and real.

There is no doubt that the short-term success of PhantaBear, the first New Year's celebrity NFT, is entirely due to Jay Chou's influence. Following this precedent, similar celebrity NFT projects will surely emerge in an endless stream. Although they will not become the dominant force in the next stage, it is also a direction worthy of attention. For example, idol groups from Japan and South Korea, and celebrities from Hong Kong and Taiwan may take over.

But can ordinary people regard celebrity NFTs and celebrity behaviors as their own investment references? We think they can, but they need to do it themselves.

First of all, from the perspective of celebrities investing in NFTs, for these celebrities with a net worth of hundreds of millions, the funds invested in NFTs may account for a very small proportion of their investment portfolio. On the surface, we see that celebrities such as Huang Licheng and Shawn Yue have made a lot of money, but we ignore the premise - they did not initially bet on only 1 or 2 projects, but invested in many projects. As long as a few of them soar, the returns they bring are quite considerable.

It remains to be seen whether the financial scale of ordinary people can keep up with their investment pace. In addition, they also need to identify the most promising NFT projects from the many NFT projects they have purchased, which requires strong sensitivity and deep cognitive accumulation, and these are not something that can be achieved overnight.

Secondly, we need to be alert to the risk of falling prices after a rapid increase due to the entry of celebrities. Due to the anonymous nature of blockchain, when celebrities announce their investments, most of them are for product promotion or have already built positions. The more influential the celebrity is, the more likely their announcement will be seen as a short-term positive, which may lead to a rapid increase in prices.

Celebrity NFTs are popular and concentrated, which easily triggers a buying spree. Their price fluctuations are more driven by fan groups and professional communities that come here because they think they are profitable. Unlike artworks, they do not have such deep academic and aesthetic value, so they become popular quickly and fade quickly.

For example, PhantaBear hit a floor price of 7.3 ETH on January 10, just 10 days after its release. However, in another 10 days, on January 20, the floor price dropped to 2.4 ETH. Even so, compared with the 0.26 ETH at the time of mint, it still increased by 823%, which shows its bubble and volatility.

Finally, there is a threshold for issuing NFT assets. Most of the companies that take on users' love and trust for celebrities are third-party companies. The vision and planning of these companies will also affect the development of celebrity NFTs.

Celebrities issuing or investing in NFT projects can provide a reference for ordinary investors. After all, popularity is one of the important indicators for measuring the development of current projects. In addition, whether from the perspective of protecting their reputation or sustainable development, most celebrities will not do things that damage or overdraw their reputation for short-term gains, so their entry is a screening to some extent. However, from the experience of traditional industries, despite the endorsement of celebrities, thunderstorms are still frequently avoided. As long as it is an investment, risks are always associated, so don't be affected by the "information waterfall" and avoid blindly following the trend. Doing DYOR is still the key.