Celebrity NFT Owners – Which Celebs Bought NFTs?

In 2021 the NFT wave changed the way we look at digital art and in 2022 many NFT collections popular with celebrities like the CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club have set new all time highs.

News of celebrity NFT buyers spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions on a non-fungible token keep hitting the headlines. Many predicted the hype would die down, but NFTs have outperformed crypto heading into mid 2022 and celebrity NFT investors, if they didn’t sell, will be up on their purchase.

In this guide we’ll list ten of the most notable celebrity NFT owners and the NFTs they bought.

Celebrity NFT Owners – Full Background

There has been a tsunami of tweets from celebs announcing their ownership of NFT digital art. Some have even entered the NFT space and backed NFT collections, or launched their own celebrity NFT platform.

Other icons are leveraging the ownership of their art by tokenizing their music, movies, photographs and ticket access to events. To find out who’s got skin in the NFT game, let’s take a deep dive and explore the background of each celebrity who bought NFT tokens.

1. Bored Ape Yacht Club – Timbaland 

Timothy Zachery Mosley, popularly known as Timbaland, is a record producer, singer-songwriter and rapper. Timbaland has a strong passion for music and has made his contribution to albums of several popular artists. The multiple-time Grammy winner has produced many hits for popular artists including Jay-Z, Snoop Dog, Ginuwine and Ludacris.

Timbaland bought Bored Ape #590 to enter the very exclusive Bored Ape Yacht Club – there are 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs and alongside CryptoPunks they are the most expensive NFTs on the market in terms of blue chip NFT collections. Only individual NFT art pieces by artists like Beeple and Pak have attracted higher bids.

Number 590 is a five trait ape that rocks a golden cardigan, dark brown sunglasses, and a golden chain that brings his entire look together. He was able to grab his ape at 74.69 ETH, around $220,000 at the current Ethereum price.

But that’s not the biggest news. In a tweet, Timbaland announced the launch of his latest venture, Ape-In Productions. That’s an entertainment company in partnership with Yuga Labs, that will provide a platform to develop music and animation for metaverse applications.

In a statement, Timbaland said, “We’ve built a new entertainment platform in the metaverse that puts creative control and long-term ownership back in the hands of artists, a concept that is incredibly important to us.”

So not only is Timbaland a celebrity Bored Ape NFT owner, he’s also shown a vested interest in blockchain tech and the upcoming Otherside metaverse.

Which other Celebrities bought BAYC NFTs:

• Eminem
• Justin Bieber
• Snoop Dogg
• Paris Hilton
• Neymar Jr.

2. KaijuKing – Marshmello

Marshmello, the popular electronic music producer and DJ is another of the most noted celebrity NFT holders, owning several. The artist, Christopher Comstock, started getting recognition in 2015 and has several songs that are top hits today – many crossing more than a billion views on youtube.

Marshmello remained a secret NFT whale for a while until he changed his Twitter profile picture to a CryptoPunk. In October 2021, the artist added then a KaijuKing NFT to his portfolio – which is estimated to be valued at over $1 Million. His KaijiKing #1680 is one among the collection of 3,333 NFTs and was purchased for 5.88 ETH, equivalent to $17000 today.

Apart from KaijuKing, Marshmello is also another celebrity Bored Ape NFT owner, and holds a CrypToadz, Wicked Craniums, and other CryptoPunks. The most expensive NFT in his collection is suggested to be CryptoPunk #8274, which was sold at the impressive amount of $427,000.

Regular and celebrity Punks NFT owners have a particularly trendy reputation in the NFT community, as their retro pixellated art style has a cult appeal and its seen as one of the ‘OG’ collections, first created by Larva Labs and later acquired by Yuga Labs.

Notably, it’s not just the art of NFTs that intrigues this artist, it’s the art coupled with the community. In a tweet, Marshmello said: “This is my favorite thing about NFTs. A lot of awesome fan art being made.”

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

3. Clone X – Steve Aoki

While we talk about record producers in the NFT space, leaving out Steve Aoki is no option. Aoki, as many popularly know, is a record producer, a music programmer, and a DJ. He is primarily known for his “experiential” live performances and makes a big dent in the streaming space with over 15 million monthly streams on Spotify.

On December 14, 2021, Steve purchased his first CloneX NFT for 13.95 ETH or $42,500 at the time of writing. The NFT is #2004 from the collection of 20,000 Clone X NFTs and is as funky as they come. Some rare traits include an octopus hat, a black respirator mask, a graphic black tee, purple eyes, and a smiley sticker on the forehead.

Along with that, Aoki holds multiple NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, VeeFriends and Doodies collection in his wallet. In total he’s a celebrity NFT collector of over 200 NFTs. But it’s not just NFT art that’s appealing to this artist, it’s much more than that.

Aoki believes that NFTs will bring about a revolution, particularly in the music industry, wherein the power from record labels will be transferred back to the artists.

Adding to that he made a statement saying “As music NFTs become more of a part of how we integrate and support artists, the labels will have to do more than just add the song on a playlist.” Clearly, Aoki has a much grander vision with NFTs while being an eminent celebrity NFT collector himself.

Which other Celebrities bought Clone X:

• Justin Bieber
• Snoop Dogg
• Peter Crouch
• Anthony Pettis

4. World of Women – Reese Witherspoon

No one is a stranger to the fact that the cryptocurrency and NFT market is male-dominated, where male buyers account for about 80% of all NFT sales.

In the hopes of encouraging equal participation by both genders, Yam Karaki launched an NFT collection named World of Women. Last October, Reese Witherspoon joined this initiative by purchasing World of Women #8072 for 2.8 ETH, or ~$9000.

Along with owning multiple World of Women NFTs, her collection carries a total of 108 NFTs across projects. Unlike some celebrities who see NFTs as a simple investment opportunity, Witherspoon is arguably one of the most engaged celebrities in the space. A couple of months back, Witherspoon announced her partnership with World of Women through her company Hello Sunshine.

The company is said to build a character universe and branch out to media production with feature films and TV series. Live events will also be conducted to educate women on the opportunities in the NFT arena.

Elaborating on the partnership, Witherspoon stated “We’re proud to partner with WoW to expand their universe of characters and to develop innovative scripted and unscripted content.”

“We look forward to engaging with the remarkable WoW community at every step of this partnership and creating opportunities for WoW holders to work collaboratively with Hello Sunshine on transforming the WoW art into powerful stories.”

With icons like Reese Witherspoon as NFT celebrity owners, there’s a lot to look forward to with WoW and its a promising new NFT project.

Which other Celebrities hold a World of Women NFT:

• FaZe Banks
• Huda Kattan
• Shonda Rhimes
• Sebastien Borget

5. Doodles – Pranksy

Any list of celebrity NFT owners and ‘NFT whales’ would have to mention the anonymous NFT whale Pranksy. While no one knows his or her identity, they became somewhat of an NFT celeb with their many purchases.

According to NFT communities on the internet, Pranksy has the largest NFT collection on the entire planet. This avid celebrity NFT collector has around 35,000 NFTs in their wallet on OpenSea.

In January this year, Pranksy added a Doodle to his NFT collection for a record-breaking amount of 296.69 ETH. Currently, they hold 71 Doodles NFTs in their collection that has over 34,000 NFTs in total. Additionally, Pranksy owns multiple NFTs from other popular collections such as Decentraland, CryptoKitties, SuperRare and WomenRise.

Initially, the celebrity NFT owner started with a small amount of six hundred dollars and worked their way up to a glamorous collection that made millions. Now, the pseudonymous collector has a strong following with close to 400k followers on Twitter.

In an interview, Pranksy stated that people get more than they expected in the NFT market, and therefore the market is growing. Pranksy has also launched a couple celebrity NFT projects in this growing market, including NFTBoxes.

Which other Celebrities bought Doodles NFTs:

• GaryVee
• Treeverse

6. Mutant Ape Yacht Club – Lil Baby

Following big names like Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z, LilBaby too has welcomed himself to the world of NFTs. The American Rapper has over 26 Million monthly streams on Spotify and is quite popular on Instagram as well, with close to 19 Million followers on the platform.

Last Fall, LilBaby became a celebrity Bored Ape NFT owner when he mutated a Bored Ape, which was Bored Ape #129.

A Bored Ape has to be mixed with the M2 serum in order to mutate into a Mutant Ape. His new Mutant Ape is number #10259. The original Bored Ape was purchased for 37.99 ETH equivalent to $170,000 at the time of purchase.

Along with being one of many celeb MAYC owners, LilBaby has 23 other recorded celebrity NFT purchases including NFTs from Crypto Cannabis Club, Doodles, DeadFellaz and Little Lemon Friends.

Which other Celebrities own a MAYC NFT:

• Steve Aoki
• Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal)
• Mike Shinoda
• Jimmy Fallon
• Snoop Dogg

7. Azuki – Lakshmi Manchu

The NFT space has welcomed a lot of newcomers this year and Lakshmi Manchu is one of them. Lakshmi Manchu is primarily an actor and a producer and has worked in both Telugu cinema and American television.

This January, the actress made her first NFT purchase with the Azuki NFT collection. She purchased Azuki #4272 for 3.3 ETH, equivalent to about 10k dollars. In a statement, Lakshmi stated, “I was very nervous as this is my first NFT and I can’t say I know what this new meta world is, but it sure is exciting and I’m in love with my character.”

She also used her first NFT as her Twitter profile picture and tweeted the following. “Excited by my #NewNFTProfilePic is an @AzukiZen that’s literally the metaverse me. we can see where the project goes together now. Where my #Azuki fam at?”

“The ownership of the Azuki NFT will allow me exclusive rights to the content that can be opened up later for audiences who own Azuki’s. This content could be in the form of games, short stories, and other digital assets.” With this statement, Lakshami has made it perfectly clear that she has plans for NFTs beyond the ownership.

It’s exciting to witness all the avenues the world of NFTs opens up for creators.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

8. CryptoPunks – Heidi Klum

As many celebrities introduced themselves to the world of NFTs, Heidi Klum too has ventured into NFTs with the purchase of a CryptoPunk. Heidi is a supermodel, a producer, and a television host. Many know her from the television talent show America’s Got Talent.

The actress purchased CryptoPunk #3653 in December last year. She purchased the NFT for 80 ETH, equivalent to $260,000. Although the NFT has been traded for about 7 times now, switching owners, one can say it’s finally found the right home.

Surprisingly, the Punk bears a noticeable resemblance to the celebrity NFT owner, especially the blonde hair. Additionally, Heidi also has 8 other NFTs in her collection along with owning the heidiklumofficial.eth ENS domain, according to DappRadar.

Praising the engagement of the NFT community, Heidi tweeted: “I’m super appreciative of the support within the NFT community. I never expected this type of support and I cannot wait to learn more.”

Which other Celebrities purchased CryptoPunks:

• Jay-Z
• Serena Williams
• Jason Derulo
• Faze Banks
• Logan Paul

9. Alien Frens – Justin Bieber

Arguably, one of the most popular names on this list, Justin Bieber is a famous investor in the NFT space as well. Justin made the NFT space shakeup when he purchased an Alien Frens NFT right after “dropping” 500 ETH on a Bored Ape NFT.

The Alien Frens NFT cost him 2 ETH, and as news of his celebrity NFT purchases hit the media, the floor price of Alien Frens quickly pumped to 3 ETH.

Bieber added the Alien Fren #8591 to his massive list of celebrity NFT purchases that now totals over 2,000 NFTs including major projects such as BAYC, Clone-X, MAYC, Doodles and World of Women.

The internet wasn’t very encouraging of Bieber on the purchase of his Bored Ape however.

Many fans and NFT investors pointed out he bought an NFT that had “no rare traits” and at five times its worth. Though the criticism may be accurate, it still remains a fact that Bieber is one of the most prominent collectors of NFTs, at least in the circle of celebs.

10. VeeFriends – Logan Paul

While film celebrities have made headlines announcing their crypto purchases, Youtubers – like digital internet celebrities in their own right – are not far behind. One name that has been popping on everyone’s Twitter feed, is Logan Paul. The creator, who has over 23 million subscribers on Youtube, has purchased over $3 million dollars in non-fungible tokens.

And to add to his passion, he’s soon releasing his own celebrity NFT line, for which he’ll be tokenizing 99 pictures he took with his polaroid camera as NFTs.

This January, Logan spent 90 ETH on a VeeFriends NFT. Announcing the latest celebrity NFT purchase in a tweet, he said “Just dropped 90 Eth ($290k) on this 1/1 holographic @VeeFriends because I believe in @GaryVee as a true innovator and visionary in the NFT space.”

The NFT he purchased goes by the name Thoughtful Three Horned Harpik – a doodle-like hand drawing on a holographic background.

Over the course of the last couple of years, Logan has been very vocal about his passion for digital collectibles, including NFTs and Pokemon cards. It’s even more evident with just a look at his collection on OpenSea which holds over 4.8k NFTs, including many popular ones.

The YouTube creator clearly understands diversification as his collection includes NFTs from famous projects such as CryptoPunks, BAYC, WoW, MoonCats, and 0N1 Force. It’s clear to see that Logan Paul is one of the biggest players in the NFT space right now.

Which other Celebrities bought VeeFriends:

• Beeple
• Steve Aoki
• Gary Vaynerchuk, the creator, owns a collection valued at $68 million
• Marshmello

What is the Best Celebrity NFT of 2024?

One of the latest celebrity NFTs that also has an established cryptocurrency project behind it, is Lucky Block which we reviewed here.

Lucky Block is a crypto games and competitions platform that provides passive income opportunities, an incentive to hold their token LBLOCK, one of their NFT collection the Platinum Rollers Club, or both. The token launched on Jan 26th, 2022 and the NFTs were minted on March 19th.

The LBLOCK token went on a 65x run in Q1 2022 in the months following its launch, so potentially the NFTs may experience a similar bull cycle and growth in valuation for early investors.

Celebrity NFT investor Jamie Jewitt

The project benefits from two celebrity NFT collectors and enthusiasts working as ambassadors to promote it. Jamie Jewitt is a famous actor known for his appearance on hit TV show Love Island, and a noted fashion model and philanthropist.

Boxer Dillian Whyte who recently put in a good six round showing against one of best boxers in the world Tyson Fury, also announced he will be joining the team as an official brand ambassador on Twitter on April 20th. He has 360,000 followers and wore the Lucky Block logo in that heavyweight title fight.

Read more about the tokenomics behind LBLOCK, the roadmap and whitepaper and how NFT holders can earn prizes and rewards at the Lucky Block site.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

Conclusion

The appeal of NFTs has penetrated every industry. Celebrities too have climbed onto the NFT bandwagon, from sports stars like Colin Kaepernick to musicians like DJ Khaled and actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the past couple of years, it appears the NFT train won’t stop anytime soon. NFTs have changed the way we look at digital art, and more importantly asset ownership thanks to blockchain tech. New and exciting NFT projects are now being launched on a regular basis.

NFTs have a promising future. While it might just be another investment category for some buyers, NFTs could possibly soon change the whole way we interact with and consume media. If you’re new to the space and want to follow in the footsteps of celebrity NFT buyers, see our guide on how to buy NFTs.

Two of the latest celebrity NFT investors are Jamie Jewitt and Dillian Whyte who are ambassadors of the Platinum Rollers Club by Lucky Block, available exclusively on NFT Launchpad.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

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