Celebs and NFTs: who’s offering what?

The world of NFT art has attracted a lot of attention from the celebrity community over the past few years. 

For example, Mark Cuban has a current portfolio worth upwards of half a billion US dollars which includes avatars from CryptoPunk, Bored Ape/Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Gucci and dozens more. Gary Vaynerchuk’s portfolio tops just over $100 million USD which includes a CryptoPunk he purchased in 2021 for USD$3.7 million and his own NFT collection: VeeFriends.

Which is the topic for this article; celebrities who have created their own collections of NFTs. Who’s created one, and what’s on offer?

Hmmm, yes… Of course… NFTs

If this has been your reaction up to here, it’s ok. There are so many different acronyms and initialisms floating around these days that it can be easy to get lost amongst them all.

We won’t bog you down with too much detail, but the brief summary is that NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are one-of-a-kind digital assets stored on the blockchain, similar to cryptocurrency. 

People can make NFTs from almost any digital file including music, digital art, domain names, memes and even social media posts. The process of converting the digital file to an NFT is referred to as minting, and done via certain marketplaces (think eBay but for NFTs).

Provided there’s a good marketing strategy behind them and/or a famous NFT artist creates them, they can sell for amazing prices. The most expensive NFT ever sold (to date) was ‘The Merge’ from renowned NFT artist Pak, which went for an incredible USD$91.8 million. 

These celeb NFT projects will blow your mind

There may have been a little bit of a mixed reception when NFTs finally hit the mainstream, but in recent years many have seen nothing but overwhelming increases in value. 

So it’s no surprise that some of the more adventurous and innovative celebs hopped onto the fast-moving bandwagon. Here are the stand-out celeb NFT projects that have dropped so far.

Snoop Dogg

Image source: crypto snoop dog

An avid NFT buyer and owner for some time, Mr. Dogg launched his very own NFT collection in April 2021. Called ‘A Journey with the Dogg’, this included 8 digital art pieces, each with a specific number of editions, and are based on memories from Snoop’s early years.

One such piece in the collection was sold for a very tidy USD$108,000.

David Bowie

Image source: Starly/ David Bowie

Although he’s sadly gone, David Bowie is anything but forgotten. Starly, in collaboration with Melos Studio as well as Denis O’Regan (Bowie’s photographer) and of course Davie Bowie’s estate has created a collection of 12,000 NFTs which officially dropped on 27 January this year.

These collector cards come in packs and are split up into Common, Rare and Legendary cards.

Paris Hilton

Image source: Paris Hilton

Having been investing in cryptocurrency from way back in 2016, it was no real surprise when Paris Hilton got involved in NFTs (she now owns more than 150 herself). Hilton created her first NFT in 2019, going on to sell it in 2020 for charity. 

Since then, he has collaborated with Blake Kathryn to create the Planet Paris NFT collection, a series of short animated videos with a musical backdrop which was released in 2021.

Hilton has also worked with Superplastic to develop the ‘Paris: Past Lives, New Beginnings’ NFT collection. This included 4 pieces of digital art, each representing her journey through the public domain and an expression of herself reclaiming her life for herself.

Shaq

Image source: Opensea/ Shaq

To support his charity, man-mountain Shaquille O’Neal launched his ‘Shaq Gives Back NFT collection. 

Comprising a total of 10,000 NFTs, each of the man himself dressed in a variety of different outfits, 100% of the proceeds from sales are going directly to The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation, which provides toys, clothing and meals for underprivileged youth and also creates pathways for underserved youth.

To date, this collection has raised over USD$2 million.

Shawn Mendes

Image source: Opensea/ Shawn Mendes

In a collab with Genies, musician Shawn Mendes launched an NFT collection to complement the release of his album Wonder, with proceeds going towards a grants program for digital artists. 

This collection included a range of different digital ‘wearables’ like a guitar, t-shirt and vest, as well as little rendered Shawn Mendeses playing piano, singing in the rain and holding up a guitar.

Mike Tyson

Image source: Mike Tyson

Iron Mike is another huge fan and avid collector of NFTs including within the iconic Bored Ape Yacht Club. 

Now, he’s teamed up with up-and-coming artist Cory Van Lew to create his very own collection. Included in this project are several pieces of digital art, some 1-of-1 and others with a very limited edition count, and are being released over 4 drops.

Successfully win the auction for the major ‘Ultimate Mike Tyson NFT’ and you’ll unlock an otherwise series of ‘unlockable’ features which involve an all-expenses paid trip to Mike’s ranch including a first-class airfare, training, battling and relaxing with Mike.

Steve Aoki

Image source: Nifty gateway/ Steve Aoki

Celeb DJ Steve Aoki is very much a proponent of the NFT space, admitting that he made more money with NFT drops in a year than he did over a decade of making music. 

He owns a number of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and several others, and has even launched ‘Aokiverse’, an exclusive club based on NFTs. 

Aoki has had two NFT drops so far, the first in March 2021 in collaboration with Antoni Tudisco and the second a month later where he worked with Maciej Kuciara.

Connect with Mooning for comprehensive NFT solutions 

Need some help finding a talented artist to create a groundbreaking NFT collection? Struggling to navigate your way through the minting, listing and selling process? Want to know you’re selling at a sky-high price due to a first-class marketing campaign execution? 

At Mooning, our expertise when it comes to NFTs knows no bounds. We like to think of ourselves as the Club Med of NFTs; an all-inclusive solution for you to take advantage of that allows you to put your feet up and relax while we do all the heavy lifting. 

Only unlike Club Med, you leave with a fat stack of cash once your NFTs drop! So get on board the Mooning train and take it all the way to domination station – you’ll be more than glad you did. 

Interested? Call us on 1300 818 435 or send us an online enquiry today.