With NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, becoming more and more popular, even celebrities have started to cash in on the hype, with many launching their own tokenised collections of art, videos and more.
Here we check out some of the top celebrity NFT drops to happen over the last couple of years.
Johnny Depp
Actor Johnny Depp launched an NFT collection – called Never Fear Truth – on the Ethereum blockchain featuring portraits of his friends, heroes and family. Twenty-five per cent of the sales will be donated to charities.
Depp, who portrayed Captain Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean films, is distributing 11,111 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with 10,000 available for purchase. The remaining 1,111 will be distributed ‘at his discretion’ to ‘those fans who have supported him most’ as well as his team.
According to the Never Fear Truth website, the actor created the project to share his art as well as establish a creative community of fans and friends through ownership on the Ethereum blockchain.
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg launched his first NFT collection in 2021 on Crypto.com/NFT called A Journey with the Dogg. The collection brought together Snoop Dogg’s memories from his early years, art inspired by the NFT movement, an original track entitled ‘NFT’ and ‘Snoop Dogge Coins’ (a play on Dogecoin.)
Lionel Messi
Footballer Lionel Messi unveiled a collection of NFT crypto art last year. The art, created by digital designer BossLogic, depicts Messi as a king, superhero and greek titan. The works were titled Man from the Future, Worth the Weight and The King Piece, all celebrating his career highlights.
The works were available on the Ethernity Chain platform and sold for more than $1million.
The Wombats
UK Indie band The Wombats introduced a ‘one of a kind, carbon negative NFT fan experience’ after releasing their fifth studio album Fix Yourself Not The World. The band will be meeting their fans in the metaverse for the first time with the help of Kollectiff. The initiative will include a metaverse-ready avatar and concert, exclusive access to AMAs, live acoustic performances, unheard B-Sides, rare memorabilia, VIP tickets, and more.
The Wombats will be releasing 3,000 unique NFTs that will be ready for the Metaverse. This drop will be particularly unique, as it will be completely carbon negative, ensuring all carbon emissions from the mint are offset twenty times.
Tony Hawk
Skateboarder Tony Hawk released a tokenised video of his Last Trick showing him completing a 540-degree ollie for the last time. The NFT lets someone permanently own the last footage of the skater performing the trick.
Hawks NFTs have seen some recent backlash, however, with fans taking to social media to express their disappointment that he was jumping on the ‘NFT bandwagon’.
ASAP Rocky
ASAP Rocky came onto the NFT scene with a collection available through Nifty Gateway, including a snippet of a then-unreleased track Sandman. The Harlem rapper launched his own bespoke marketplace known as Rocky Gateway, with each of the artworks selling for $50,000.
Grimes
Musicians launching NFTs seems to be all the rage at the moment, with Grimes being another on the list launching their own tokens. She has sold around $6million worth of digital artworks and is one of the bestselling NFT creators in the industry.
Her initial series of 10 pieces was sold on Nifty Gateway in 2021, with her highest-selling piece being a video called Death of the Old that features flying cherubs, a cross, a sword and original music. 700 copies of this token were sold for $5.18million.
However, it has also been reported that one of her tokens has dropped significantly in value, being resold for less than 84 per cent of the original price.
John Cena
Another celebrity familiar with the struggle when it comes to NFTs in John Cena. The wrestler-turned-actor released NFTs ahead of his Universal Championship match at SummerSlam with WWE. 500 gold packages were available, valued $1000 each, that included an NFT and a limited edition merch box inspired by Cena.
However, despite the NFT hype the release flopped, with only 37 of the packages actually sold. Cena himself called the release a ‘catastrophic failure’.
Lewis Capaldi
Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi launched his own line of NFTs as part of his unique merchandise collection in the form of digital cards. The card also included a number of perks for fans, such as the opportunity to attend his ‘secret album preview show’ or have a video call with the singer himself.
The cards ranged in price from £29 to £3,500 with five different tiers available. The collection, titled Big Fat Sexy Collectible Cards, was available from April last year and sold out with the majority of buyers purchasing in fiat currencies.
Paris Hilton
In honour of her grandma, Paris Hilton released digital art NFTs in partnership with designer Blake Kathryn. Often touted as one of the nicest looking tokens on the market, the series featured three unique pieces: Hummingbird in My Metaverse, Legend of Love and Iconic Crypto Queen. The latter sold for more than $1.11million with the two others bringing in $220,000 in sales.
John Cleese
In perhaps one of the more surprising NFT drops, John Cleese, star of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers, minted his own drawing of the Brooklyn Bridge as an NFT. However, this token was more a tongue in cheek protest of the industry from Cleese, claiming that the NFT boom is ‘completely absurd’.
