In the past few days, Jimmy Fallon has received some Moonbirds and Neymar has purchased a Mutant Ape. But the reasons why these two celebrities acquired their NFTs are very different. They highlight how NFT projects operate in the current system and the levers they pull to generate hype.
Jimmy Fallon tweeted yesterday that he’s joined the latest NFT hype project, Moonbirds. And Paris Saint-Germain soccer star recently purchased Mutant Ape #10953. But celebrity endorsement and online flexing are nothing new to a space built on reputation, exclusivity and money.
Saying this, it’s always interesting to see someone famous buy an NFT for a huge price. And it’s even more interesting to see which projects they’re buying into and where the NFT came from. Because sometimes purchases are more than simple purchases – they can be great marketing tools for a new NFT collection.
Jimmy Fallon gets two Moonbirds
Jimmy Fallon tweeted recently that he now owns two NFTs from PROOF Collective’s brand new Moonbirds collection.
It’s no surprise that Fallon has these NFTs. They’re two of the hottest properties in the game right now and Fallon already has a Bored Ape and his own .eth domain. But it’s interesting to see where the Moonbirds came from. It’s also interesting to note that he tweeted about having them three days after receiving them. Perhaps he was waiting to see if they’d blow up before he told the world about them.
The wallet that sent the two Moonbirds to Fallon is this one and it’s currently holding $8.56 million worth of NFTs and tokens. If you find the same wallet on OpenSea, you can see it’s called MBTreasury. The wallet joined OPENSEA this month and currently holds over 120 Moonbirds. All signs point to the wallet being the Moonbirds Treasury, where the project team holds its NFTs.
We can see on Etherscan that he didn’t pay any money for the two birds and also we know he didn’t mint them himself. Putting all of this together and making some educated guesses, it seems that Jimmy Fallon received the two NFTs for free as part of the Moonbirds project marketing strategy.
None of this is a shock. Everyone knows that this is how projects get attention and generate hype. But it’s always useful to maintain a level of caution when we see a celebrity endorsing a project. Ask yourself: who are they working with and what are they getting out of it?
Neymar cops an Ape
Neymar’s purchase of a Mutant Ape doesn’t fall into the same category as Jimmy Fallon’s Moonbirds. The soccer player paid real money for his NFT. He bought it for 55 ETH ($173,601, at the time of writing) and you can currently see it here on DappRadar.
You can view the purchase here yourself. And if you look at the NFT in the secondary marketplace, you can see that, at the time of writing, someone has already put in an offer of 31.8 ETH ($99,250) to buy the Ape from Neymar.
In this case, Neymar has bought the NFT because he sees value in the purchase. Maybe he likes the artwork, or maybe he just likes being part of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club. Whatever his reasons, no one can deny his commitment to the cause and his belief in the power of web3.
Why else would he dress up as an NFT in real life and go out into the world?
What is the PROOF Collective and their new Moonbirds collection?
The Moonbirds collection launched on April 16th and already has a floor price of 20 ETH ($61,950). The project was developed by the PROOF Collective and consists of 10,000 utility-enabled PFPs.
In the four days since launch, there’s already been over 72,343 ETH ($224 million) in trading of the collection. While the average sale price currently sits at 12.5 ETH ($38,950), expect that to shoot up in the coming days as the hype continues around this project.
The PROOF Collective is a small, influential and very well-resourced community of web3 enthusiasts and taste-makers. Its website describes them as ‘a private members only collective of 1,000 dedicated NFTs collectors and artists’.
Anyone is welcome to join the PROOF Collective but it comes at a cost. To buy a membership pass on the secondary markets, you’ll have to shell out around 83 ETH ($257,305). So although it is possible to join in theory, in reality it isn’t attainable for most people.
The PROOF Collective started the Moonbirds project as a PFP NFT for its members to display on their social media profiles. Interestingly, the collection is made up of 10,000 Moonbirds, and PROOF Collective NFT holders were allowed to mint two each. This means that members of the already-exclusive club had access to 2,000 of the cute little birds before anyone else could get one.
Holding a Moonbird gives people:
- Access to the private PROOF Collective Discord channel.
- A process called nesting. It’s similar to staking and by doing it, holders unlock additional benefits and rewards.
- Membership and links to a group containing key web3 personalities such as Beeple, Mike Winkelmann and Gary Vaynerchuck.
The Moonbirds collection has broken trading records already, having generated over $224 million in volume sold across all markets since it launched four days ago. And the floor price is already higher than established NFT collections like Clone X, CrypToadz and Cool Cats. If it carries on this way, it could rule over all of them.
Tracking NFTs around the blockchain
To view Jimmy Fallon’s NFT wallet, you can use DappRadar’s Portfolio feature. It’s a useful tool to track NFTs and tokens around the blockchain. You can also use it to track other celebrity wallets.
You can delve deeper into individual NFTs by clicking on them and getting an in-depth view of various features associated with the artwork or token. You’ll be able to see:
- Last sale price of the NFT
- Current floor price
- Estimated price of the NFT
- The Asset Strength – you can learn how DappRadar judges asset strength here.
- Which blockchain network the NFT is on
- The metadata associated with the NFT
- Trading history of any NFT in the collection.
As with everything stored on the blockchain, anyone can follow the breadcrumbs of information and track the history of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. For instance, you can see that Jimmy Fallon received his Bored Ape five months ago from Moonpay whose Ethereum wallet is currently worth $11.98 million.
You can also use DappRadar’s tools to track Moonbirds’ latest NFT collection statistics and see where it falls in our NFT rankings pages. Make sure you follow our blog to stay up to date with the latest on this story and follow us on Twitter to get the news as quickly as we do.
