In 2021, non-fungible tokens went mainstream in a big way as celebrities and the general public spent millions buying up and trading the digital collectibles. But today, prices for Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, one of the most popular collections, has crashed to a two-year low.
Take one Bored Ape NFT owned by Justin Bieber, for example: It has declined in value by about 95% over the past year and a half.
In January 2022, the Grammy award-winning music artist entered the world of NFTs by allegedly dropping 500 ETH (around $1.3 million at the time) on Bored Ape #3001, an NFT belonging to Yuga Labs' Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection.
But as of July 2023, Bieber's Bored Ape is only worth around $59,000, according to Bitcoinist.
And its not just Bieber's NFT that has significantly declined in value.
Basketball star Stephen Curry purchased Bored Ape #7990 for 55 ETH (nearly $180,000 at the time) on Aug. 28, 2021. But as of July 6, the highest bid for the NFT is 30.5 ETH, or about $58,000, according to OpenSea. That's a nearly 68% drop.
Music icon Madonna bought Bored Ape #4988 for 180 ETH (around $466,000 at the time) on March 14, 2022, but the highest bid on the NFT was 28 ETH (a little over $53,000) as of July 6, according to OpenSea.
It's also worth noting that in December, a number of celebrities, including Bieber, Curry and Madonna, were named in a class-action lawsuit filed by investors who purchased Yuga Labs' digital assets, which alleges the celebrity endorsements and promotions of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection were manufactured, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The floor price of the NFT collection has dwindled to lows not seen since October 2021, when the cheapest Bored Ape cost about 30 ETH, per CoinDesk's analysis.
That's a long way away from when BAYC's floor price surged to 153.7 ETH in April 2022, meaning the smallest amount of money a seller would accept was around $430,000 at that time.
At the end of 2022, the NFT market had recorded about $24.7 billion in trading volume — a slight dip from 2021's $25.1 billion, according to Decrypt.
This year, the NFT market's downward turn appears to be continuing. In May and June, NFT trading volume didn't surpass the $1 billion mark for the first time since December 2022, according to DappRadar. However, it's important not to equate lower trading volume to lower overall market enthusiasm, DappRadar's report says.
To that point, Bored Ape Yacht Club still ranks as one of the top NFT collections on OpenSea, and some sellers still appear to be hopeful that collectors will shill out millions for the digital artwork.
While the lowest asking price for a Bored Ape hovered around 30.6 ETH ($57,712) as of July 6, the most expensive Bored Ape NFT comes with an asking price of over 6,969 ETH ($13 million), according to OpenSea.
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