The Once Expensive NFTs: Now Worthless?
Investors who purchased NFTs a few years ago may now regret their decision.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are no longer as popular as they once were.
At the peak of the NFT craze, it seemed like the whole world was caught up in the frenzy for digital art.
NFT collections like CryptoPunks and Bored Apes sparked a cultural movement, gaining massive attention from 2021 to 2022. Celebrities like Justin Bieber, LeBron James, Tony Hawk, and Madonna bought these artworks, making headlines in mainstream media.
Snoop Dogg and Eminem even performed as avatars from the Bored Ape Yacht Club at the MTV Video Music Awards.
In January 2022, Paris Hilton discussed her love for NFTs with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.
Just a few months later, in May 2022, the market peaked with a total value of $526 billion. Today, the total market value is close to $18 billion, a 97% drop. So, what happened to those NFT investments?
CryptoPunk #5822
CryptoPunks are one of the biggest and most well-known NFT collections ever. Created by Larva Labs and launched on the Ethereum blockchain in 2017, this series of 10,000 24×24 pixel “punk” characters helped ignite the crypto art movement.
In 2021, a set of nine CryptoPunks was auctioned at Christie’s in London for $16.9 million. According to Christie’s, the CryptoPunk series was inspired by the London punk scene, Blade Runner, and William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.
On February 12, 2022, CryptoPunk #5822 was sold for 8,000 Ether or $23.7 million. The buyer was Deepak Thapliyal, CEO of blockchain banking company Chain. Just a month later, Thapliyal turned down an offer of 10,000 ETH, which could have given him an immediate $2 million profit.
CryptoPunk #5822 is one of only nine alien CryptoPunks. In April 2024, another alien CryptoPunk, #635, sold for 4,000 ETH or $12.4 million, while alien CryptoPunk #3100 sold for 4,500 ETH in March 2024. These sales indicate that Thapliyal’s investment has roughly halved in value over just two years.
While interest in CryptoPunks may have waned, interest in Ether has not. In February 2022, 8,000 ETH was worth only $23.7 million. Today, 8,000 ETH is worth about $26.6 million.
EtherRock #93
Launched in 2017, EtherRock is a series of 100 “pet rocks” based on a free clipart image. All the rocks in the EtherRock series are the same size and shape but come in different colors. Most of the rocks are gray or brown, but the rarest EtherRocks are blue.
On November 2, 2021, EtherRock #93—a plain gray rock—sold for 420 ETH. Why would someone pay as much as $1.8 million for a simple JPEG? Perhaps the number of Ether paid holds some clues.
All EtherRocks are nearly identical. Today, an EtherRock trades for around 200 ETH, approximately $750,000 to $800,000, which is about $1 million less than in 2021.
That’s a significant amount of money down the drain.
Bored Ape #8817
It’s hard to imagine any NFT collection more capable of promoting the industry globally than the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
During the 2021 boom, Bored Apes were all the rage. They were almost everywhere. Collectors included sports stars, musicians, and business leaders like Mark Cuban of Shark Tank. Even Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow owned one. DJ and music producer Steve Aoki collected at least 12, though he later reduced his collection to 7.
On October 26, 2021, Sotheby’s announced the record-breaking sale of Bored Ape #8817 for $3.4 million. Its main selling point was its golden fur, a trait found in less than 1% of all Bored Apes.
Other golden apes sold for similar prices during the same 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 loss of 280 ETH, equivalent to $730,000 at the current Ether price.
On February 12, 2024, a golden Bored Ape #1726 sold for just 275 ETH or $665,000. If this sale reflects the value of other golden apes, many investors may be facing millions of dollars in unrealized losses.
Some Cases Are Worse
Investors in lesser-known projects may have suffered even greater losses. A report by dappGambl in September 2023 revealed that out of 73,257 NFT collections it identified, 69,795 had a market value of 0 ETH.
dappGambl concluded that 95% of NFT holders now have investments worth nothing.
However, disheartened collectors might argue that focusing solely on NFT prices is short-sighted. After all, art serves the soul, not just speculative prices. And from a technological perspective, the blockchain technology underlying NFTs has proven to be reliable.
You can take away the millions of dollars from NFT collectors, but you can never take away their digitally immutable certificates of ownership on the blockchain, proving that the JPEG you right-clicked and saved to your hard drive doesn’t actually belong to you.