Brands and Celebrities to Have Jumped on the NFT Trend
With a market cap of $21 billion according to CoinGecko, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become one of the most talked-about trends in the crypto and blockchain space. Basically a representation of a digital asset, NFTs has offered artists, brands, musicians, and content creators an opportunity to leverage the trillion-dollar crypto market.
In a bid to gain from this market, we've witnessed the influx of celebrities and brands into this nascent yet fast-paced industry. We’ll review some of the biggest brands and celebrities to have jumped on this trend.
Mike Beeple Winkelmann
Renowned digital artist Beeple has become one of the foremost artists to not only enter this market but record one of the biggest sales in the NFT space.
February 2021, the artist released a digital artwork of all of his hitherto painting over the last decade and put it up for auction on Christie's auction house. This NFT titled “EVERYDAYS; FIRST 5000 DAYS” is a mural of over 1,000 images combined.
Recording one of the biggest sales, this digital artwork was bought for a whopping $69 million, making Beeple the second highest-selling living artist. This sale, according to various reports, opened up tremendous opportunities for other artists to release and successfully auction theirs.
Francis Ngannou
Presently the UFC Heavyweight Champion, the Cameroon-born athlete a few days before his Title Fight released and auctioned a few NFTS. According to the champion, the NFT collection featured gloves from his previous fights, VIP tickets to his next fight, and some sand from the sand mine he worked back at his home country Cameroon.
This NFT, surprisingly, sold for over $500,000 which according to various reports is more than what he gained from the UFC Title fight minus bonus and add-ons.
This is proof yet again of the immense benefits of jumping on this emerging trend.
The WWE
The World's Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is one of the latest brands to ride the surging NFT wave. A few days before the annual WrestleMania, the wrestling body in a bid to celebrate the legendary life of wrestler Undertaker aka The Deadman released a series of NFTs to be sold on the OpenSea marketplace.
The collection included clips and moments from the 30-years career of the legendary and award-winning wrestler. In addition to these clips, tickets to next year's WrestleMania as well as other meaningful collectibles were included.
Not only did the WWE sell off these NFTs successfully, but the wrestling brand also recorded one of the fastest sales in the crypto and NFT space. The Silver tier NFT was sold out in 17 seconds after going live.
The auction according to the body raised over $132,000 in less than 48 hours. Proof yet again of how rewarding the NFT market can be.
While a few other celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Lindsay Lohan, The Weeknd, and others have auctioned NFTs, these listed are some of the biggest in the space.
These successful sales is proof of how rewarding this emerging market can be.
