lol

Justin Bieber became a high-profile symbol of the NFT boom when he paid 500 ETH—about $1.3 million at the time—in January 2022 to purchase Bored Ape #3001 from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. The buy instantly drew attention because the NFT did not feature any rare or standout traits, placing it firmly in the “floor” category of the collection. Even during the height of NFT hype, many collectors questioned why such a large sum was spent on an Ape with common attributes.
Four years later, the purchase looks even more painful in hindsight. As enthusiasm for NFTs faded, the value of Bieber’s Ape collapsed to around $12,000, implying a loss of roughly 99% if sold at today’s floor price. While celebrity ownership can sometimes add a premium to an artwork’s value, comparable Bored Apes with similar traits have suffered the same dramatic decline, limiting the upside of Bieber’s association.
At the time of Bieber’s purchase, however, the broader NFT market was still accelerating. Bored Ape Yacht Club floor prices continued climbing in the months that followed, eventually peaking near $429,000 in April 2022. The singer’s purchase was also just one of many headline-grabbing deals during the NFT frenzy, which included Beeple’s $69.3 million digital artwork sale in 2021.
Since then, the market has entered a prolonged “NFT winter.” Major collections such as CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins—once valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars per NFT—have seen their floor prices fall sharply. Prediction markets show little confidence in a strong near-term recovery, assigning low odds that leading collections will regain former price levels anytime soon.
Despite the downturn, Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, continues to invest in expanding the brand. Initiatives include plans for a real-world Bored Ape clubhouse in Miami and ongoing development of Otherside, a large-scale multiplayer metaverse featuring BAYC and other NFT avatars.