Neymar Jr. Becomes the Latest Celebrity to Enter the NFT Space

The nonfungible token (NFT) space is one of the fastest-growing areas in the cryptocurrency industry, with the trading volume growing by more than 40,000% in 2021.

Neymar Jr. Buys a BAYC NFT

Neymar Jr., the Brazilian soccer star, has revealed that he acquired two Bored Ape Yacht (BAYC) NFTs. The Paris Saint Germain (PSG) star shared the news with his Twitter followers yesterday, January 20.

I am an ape! #community #art #BoredApeYC pic.twitter.com/iOe3E0H2t6

— Neymar Jr (@neymarjr) January 20, 2022

According to the transaction history from OpenSea, Neymar Jr. paid 159.99 ETH for the Bored Ape 6633. This means that he paid more than $480,000 for the BAYC NFT.

The soccer star also purchased Ape 5269 – for which he paid 189.69 ETH (above $500k at current price). Neymar Jr. went on to change his profile picture to that of the NFT he purchased.

In addition to the BAYC NFTs, the soccer star also owned some nonfungible tokens, including one from the ACESnikers fashion collection, the Flipped BAYC, flipped CryptoPunks, and flipped Doodles.

Celebrities are Adopting NFTs

The past few months have seen numerous celebrities enter the NFT space. On January 3, American rapper Eminem became the latest celebrity to acquire a Bored Ape NFT for over $450,000.

Actress Lindsay Lohan announced earlier this week that she would launch an NFT collection soon. The NFTs will be available for sale on the Superfandom marketplace.

In December, Diplo, DJ Khaled, Martin Garrix, and Future bought into the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection NFT using the exclusive MoonPay’s “concierge service.”

The NFT space is expected to gain massive adoption over the coming years. Earlier this week, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced that it is planning to enter the NFT space. This comes after the company entered the metaverse space last year.