At the height of the ‘Bored Ape’ craze earlier this year—I am embarrassed for the species that my kids are ever going to have to learn about this—pop star Justin Bieber paid a ridiculous $1.29 million for a receipt that said he owned a jpg of an ugly cartoon ape.
As Decrypt report, though, the ass hasn’t just fallen out of the crypto market and lesser NFTs in recent months; even Bored Apes, once the flagship mascots of the fad, have taken a hit. The “floor” price for the jpgs—which is the cheapest price you can buy into a collection—peaked at an eye-watering $429,000 in April.
On Monday, however, after the FTX crash had sent shockwaves through the crypto (and its adjacent NFT) market, that floor price dropped below $60,000. For NFT purchasers that’s some pretty bad news; the slightly less terrible news is that in the days since that ‘value’ has clawed its way back up slightly, to sit at $69,000. Which is, I think we can all agree, very nice for them.
Bieber’s ape, #3001 in the collection (pictured above), was purchased back in January. It is one of the apes currently ‘valued’ at that $69,000 floor price. That’s a pretty dramatic drop—around 95%!—but it’s free-fall isn’t entirely down to the tanking market; Bieber’s own impulses contributed, because even then, at the height of the mania, other collectors knew he’d massively overpaid just to get into the game:
Generation 9
Embark on a new Pokémon adventure in an open-world setting with starters Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly.
If you thought after a day or two’s consideration he may have regretted his purchase, the next month he purchased a second Bored Ape, this one for $440,000. It is also now ‘worth’ the floor price.
If you’re a fan (of the artist, not the apes) and are concerned over these mistakes, don’t cry for Bieber; dude is worth over $200 million, and could drop $1.3 million on an NFT like you or I would buy a $10 game on a Steam sale.
