“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” which is a famous quote from Mike Tyson, is probably not good financial advice. The YouTuber and “cum-boxer” Logan Paul might want to take this advice to heart, since an NFT he reportedly bought for over $500,000 is now only worth $10 (£9).
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are like cryptocurrencies in that they are highly speculative investments with a value that is often subjective, like that of fine art. In the past year, many investors have learned the hard way that this makes it hard to pick the ones that will go up in value.
Fans are sure that this will have a huge effect on the financial sector because NFTs and the blockchain technology they are based on can record transactions permanently without the permission of a central authority like a bank. Even the most devoted NFT supporters have to admit that the NFT market in 2021, when full sets of these pictures sold for millions of pounds, was too hot and needed to cool down.
Paul is not the only famous person to have lost a lot of money on NFTs or cryptocurrencies in the past year. Here are four well-known people who lost a lot of money because of the stock market crash. They might be sorry they didn’t fight Iron Mike in the ring.
Logan Paul
Last year, when NFT sales were in the millions of pounds, the popular YouTuber joined the trend. It looks like his haste cost him a lot of money. Paul paid $623,000 (£558,000) for an NFT that is now only worth $10 (£9), which is almost enough to buy a pint of beer in a pub in central London.
But that NFT is only a small part of the huge collection he put together over the past year by spending over $2.5 million (£2.24 million). DappRadar, a site that figures out the value of NFTs, says that this collection is worth just under $1 million right now. This is not a small amount of money, but it is about 60% less than what it was at its highest point. That must hurt like hell.
KSI
KSI, whose real name is JJ Olatunji and who is a British rapper and YouTuber, has long been a supporter of cryptocurrency. He has tried his hand at politics. Last year, he told GQ that if he were Prime Minister of the UK, he would give every citizen £100 in bitcoin. He has said that crypto will be a big part of how money works in the future.
In May, when the price of the LUNA cryptocurrency token was falling, the rapper put $2.8 million (£2.51 million) into it, thinking it would soon go back up. The token eventually fell to almost nothing, which wiped out KSI’s investment and left him with a hole in his pocket worth millions of pounds.
KSI, who wasn’t bothered by the big losses, said, “I feel like a lot of people don’t really see that: they’re trying to make quick money by saying things like, “Oh, I want to get in and get out.” Because this is important to me, I’m in it for the long haul. Full points for not giving up when things got tough.
Neymar Jr
This year, the Brazilian football star was said to have spent more than $1 million (£900,000) on two NFTs from the Bored Apes Yacht Club, which is widely considered to be one of the most desirable NFT collections. This makes him one of many sports stars who have fallen down the rabbit hole of NFTs.
These “Ape” NFTs are often used by celebrities and crypto fans to show that they know what’s going on in the crypto space and are in the know. Basically, these NFTs are digital pictures of primates with different hair, facial features, and expressions.
Neymar’s membership in this small group didn’t come cheap, though. According to DappRadar, a website that tracks the price of NFTs, the two apes he bought in January for about $480,000 and $570,000 are now only worth $153,000 and $171,000, respectively.
Because of this, the football player could lose more than $700,000 on paper. You shouldn’t feel too bad for him because this large amount is reportedly about one week’s salary.
Aoki, Steve
DJ and producer Steve Aoki is well-known in the electronic dance music (EDM) community for his loud EDM hits. He is also well-known in the cryptocurrency community as a collector and even creator of NFTs.
Since Aoki bought them, the value of his eight Bored Ape NFTs and more than a hundred NFTs as a whole has gone down by a lot, but his music career has been a huge success.
Even though he was able to limit his losses by spreading them out over several different investments, DappRadar estimates that one of the “Doodles” NFTs he bought in January is now only worth $42,000. Steve might not want to hear this song too much.
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