Grimes, Ja Rule, Snoop and More: Celebs Flock to NFTs

1) Grimes

Canadian singer Grimes, real name Elise Boucher and, might we add, Elon Musk’s partner, became $5.8m richer from NFTs in March. Grimes listed the collection ‘WarNymph, Vol 1 on the NFT platform Nifty Gateway owned by the Winklevoss twins.

The highest-selling piece was titled “Death of the Old” and features flying cherubs, a cross, a sword, and a pink glowing light all against a mountain range. The piece sold for $388,938, which made it one of the most expensive celebrity NFTs.

Grimes had announced the NFT launch on February 28 to her 1.1 million Twitter followers. The collection sold in under 20 minutes, per Business Insider.

2) Ja Rule 

Ja Rule clearly knows a thing or two about parlaying failure into money. In March, the American recording artist sold an NFT of the painting of the Fyre Festival logo – whose event was a disaster of epic proportions.

The 48″ by 60″ painting is an oil painting that has been in Ja Rule’s house since the affair went south. Ja told Forbes he “wanted that energy out”, adding he’d considered listing it on eBay until he heard of NFTs merely weeks ago. The NFT was listed on the newly-minted NFT marketplace, Flipkick, which the singer co-owns.

The buyer, who remains anonymous, will receive a digital version as well as the physical painting. The piece had a reserve price of $600k, but the singer settled for $122k. Understandably, he was just eager to get rid of it, considering he escaped narrowly from legal trouble that followed the festival.

3) Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg might be famous for 90’s rap and his avowed love for weed, but what many don’t know is he’s quite the tech investor. The rapper is an investor in Klarna, a Sweden-based fintech startup, and Robinhood, the investment app. And now it seems Snoop, real name Calvin Cordozar, is jumping atop the NFT bandwagon.

On April 1, the rapper announced the “Doggy Dogg Drop” – his debut NFT release to his 19+ million Twitter followers. The collection is called “A Journey with the Dogg” and features memories from when he was young, a new track fittingly called “NFT”, and a bit of NFT-inspired art. The rapper partnered with Crypto.com for the release. The collection, which was an offer for only 24 hours, eventually sold for over $100k.

4) Lewis Capaldi 

Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi is in on the NFT game. The “Someone You Loved” crooner recently partnered with tech firm Bondly to give fans “an experimental journey” – which is fancy words for a scheduled intimate interaction with the singer in 2022. Other offers will be yet-unnamed ‘unique’ perks, according to Clash.

The 24-year old tweeted the announcement to his Twitter followers on March 31, marking his debut into the NFT space. Token buyers will receive unique, unforgeable collectible cards for access to the singer.

5) Soulja Boy 

Soulja Boy of “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” fame has caught the crypto bug and clearly wants it all, including NFTs. Days after announcing he’d brought crypto, he launched several NFTs, starting with one called Soulja Boy “Crank That” in January. The NFT featured collectibles priced at 5 ETH, which raked him around $7,000.

Following Jack Dorsey’s uber-successful NFT bid, Soulja Boy asked his Twitter followers, “How do I sell my tweets(sic)”. Less than four hours later, he’d sold a signed copy of that same tweet for $1,288. He still went on to sell four more tweets the same day.

And the singer was obviously pleased with how that turned out, tweeting the following day: “1st rapper to sell a tweet.”

6) Paris Hilton 

Hotel chain heiress and businesswoman Paris Hilton was ahead of the NFT game before other famous people even started taking notice. She launched her first NFT in August 2020 before the industry had exploded as it has now. That NFT was a hand-drawn portrait – by Paris herself – of her cat called Munchkin. The NFT attracted four bids, with the final one going for 40 ETH, which was then worth around $17k. The proceeds went to charity.

Now, she’s collaborating with Blake Kathryn to launch a new NFT collection. The collection features three pieces: Hummingbird In My Metaverse, Legend Of Love and Iconic Crypto Queen. The first two pieces sold out for $10,000 each, while Iconic Crypto Queen fetched an impressive $1.1m.

What’s more, Paris is not just here for the cashouts. She’s lending her massive platform for female artists all over the world to get the recognition they deserve.

7) Edward Snowden 

Edward Snowden’s not a celebrity in the traditional sense of the word, but I had to include him for his high profile and the jaw-dropping figure his NFT amassed. Snowden, a former US intelligence consultant, is arguably the world’s most famous whistleblower. He gained international recognition after leaking top-secret American intelligence.

The NFT:”Stay Free” depicts an image of Snowden formed from the ‘landmark ruling’ that the mass surveillance programs by the NSA violated US law. The final bid for the NFT was 2,224 ETH, translating to about $5.4 million (at April 16’s price). However, the windfall is not exactly Snowden’s. It will go to Freedom of the Press Foundation, which Snowden is president of.

8) Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon, the star of Legally Blonde, Wild and Big Little Lies, is a surprising proponent of NFTs.

Witherspoon Tweeted in 2021 that she believes crypto is here to stay and she’s encouraging women to be a bigger part of the NFT conversation.

Witherspoon’s company Hello Sunshine has entered into a storytelling partnership with the World of Women NFT collection to create entertainment properties out of the WoW collection.

Celebrities Against NFTs

It should be noted that while many celebrities have been happy to jump on the NFT bandwagon there are also plenty of celebs who dislike the phenomenon.

Keanu Reeves famously dissed NFTs when he appeared on a press junket for the Matrix: Revolutions. He remarked that they were easily reproduced and laughed at the concept.

Actor Benjamin McKenzie, of The OC fame, is also a notable critic of cryptocurrency at large and has specifically criticized fellow celebrities that promote NFTs.

There are also notable occasions where celebrity NFT drop have gone awry. WWE wrestler John Cena famously attempt to sell 500 branded NFTs at the price of $1,000 each but only managed to sell 37. Many other celebrities have been the victims of NFT hacks so it’s not all good when it comes to NFTs and celebs.