In recent weeks, some in the “web3” space have had a lot of bad news, but you wouldn’t know by looking at announcements in and around the recently ended NFT.NYC and ApeFest 2022 events. In particular, the annual Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) event brought together musicians such as The Roots, LCD Soundsystem, Haim, Lil Baby, Lil Wayne, and others to perform for its members. On the last day of the event, guests saw the premiere of this video from two of the celebrities who have bought tokens, Eminem and Snoop Dogg.
The video is for a new song, From The D 2 The LBC, which isn’t the most memorable collaboration and is mostly about smoking weed, but it constantly splits into images of the cartoon monkeys. Many BAYC members were disappointed in February when both men performed on the Super Bowl halftime show, and despite appearing at an event that featured crypto ads seemingly every few minutes, they failed to highlight their web3 efforts.
ApeCoin’s price is down 39 percent in the past month to $4.51 after peaking at more than $23 in late April, while Bitcoin and Ethereum values are also down about 38 percent from 12 months ago. The Wall Street Journal wrote on May 3 that “NFT sales are falling”, and since then the numbers have generally not improved. That report quoted an NFT from Snoop’s own collection, Doggy #4292, which sold for over $33k a few months ago. The owner is currently offering the item for sale for nearly $11 million, and while the highest bid at the time of the item was $210, someone is currently bidding $1,218. You can watch the animation or download a high resolution photo from the source website herefree.
Despite this, BAYC owners can now refer to music that uses characters from the club they spent so much money on joining. Plus they got to see the real Snoop Dogg, didn’t they the fake one some web3 company used to fool people this week during NFT.NYC†
The rappers’ NFTs were both acquired through third parties in December, close to time prices for Bitcoin and Ethereum’s most recent spikes. In a deal executed by the digital agency Six, it cost 123.45 ETH to obtain Eminem’s Bored Monkey #9055† At the time, that was worth about $460,000, but it now equals about $150,000.
The monkey icon associated with Snoop Dogg, #6723, was moved in a transfer from the previous owner’s wallet, not a sale with a price recorded on the blockchain, which was powered by MoonPay. The company has focused on making it easy for celebrities to buy expensive NFTs, although it also makes it difficult to track exactly how these celebrity-affiliated tokens were obtained and who actually paid the highly publicized prices.
Opening up the opportunity for token owners to use the monkeys’ images for their creative or business endeavors is part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s strategy, even if it’s unclear why or how that will increase its appeal for people who have not spent money. six digits on an NFT. As they see it, this is the start of a new media industry, with intellectual property rights linked to digital tokens with monetization trickling down to everyone involved.
The truth about NFTs and copyright is a lot more complicated than that – you can follow our explanation of the state of play here. But for now, the parties continue, with plenty of stuff for BAYC owners Yuga Labs to sell to members who stick around, like merchandise and promises of land in a metaverse not yet launched.