Introduction
2021 was a wild year for NFTs. It was even crazier for Bored Ape Yacht Club, which minted for $200 in April and now sits at a $251,000 minimum price.
Bored Ape Yacht Club has increased 125,700% in value in 8 months.
125,700%!
Keep in mind, this growth is just based on the floor price (the lowest price you can buy a Bored Ape).
The most expensive Bored Ape Yacht Club asset ever sold was for $3.408 million, which the seller held since mint. For this seller, holding a Bored Ape NFT for 6 months turned $200 into $3.4 million, a 1,703,900% return.
So, who’s buying Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs at these prices? Which celebrities own Bored Ape Yacht Club assets?
KingBow put together a great analysis showing the celebrities with the biggest social media following who own Bored Apes. Despite historically off-the-chart returns, there are serious cultural influencers holding these assets.
We’re going to look at a compilation of these celebrities ranked by social media following, and now welcome Eminem, who just purchased his first Bored Ape, to this list.
Below is a graphic that shows the celebrities ranked by the number of followers on social media that own a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT. Let’s all give KingBow a follow and shout out for putting this together:
Source: Kingbow
Let’s start by looking at the top 5 celebrities who own a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT by total social media following:
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Snoop Dogg – 85.4 million followers
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Jimmy Fallon – 71.6 million followers
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Eminem – 55.8 million followers
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Steph Curry – 54.5 million followers
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DJ Khaled – 32.5 million followers
That’s nearly 300 million followers in total and three out of the five on this list sport their Bored Ape as their profile picture:
Source: Twitter
There is an expected overlap of followers between those accounts, but the full list pictured above shows successful entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and social media influencers who all own these assets.
I’ve written before about why Bored Ape Yacht Club went off this year, and one of the largest reasons is social capital.
Millions of people who are fans of the celebrities on this list are now exposed to the Bored Ape brand. It has the same effect as Nike partnering with Michael Jordan to create The Jordan Brand, which made over $3 billion in 2019.
Bored Ape Yacht Club is now a full-fledged brand backed by celebrities with very visible social media profiles. 11 holders of the assets have over 20 million combined social media followers.
The difference between Bored Apes and a traditional celebrity brand endorsement deal?
These celebrities paid to own the assets versus getting paid by a brand to promote the assets. This might be one of the first times in history that cultural influencers are actually paying in to join a brand, which gives them the rights to their asset so they can commercialize it, trade it, or sell it.
Where does Bored Ape Yacht Club Go Next?
If anybody tells you that something in the NFT space will happen with 100% certainty, they are lying. Consider any and all analysis subjective, vulnerable to market swings and volatility.
Bored Ape Yacht Club has had 8 straight months of growth and looks to be on the same track for its 9th month in a row, which is unheard of in the NFT space.
And the NFT space overall is still small.
Owners of Bored Ape Yacht Club have commercial rights to their assets, which could get very interesting with all of the star power behind the project.
For example, Snoop Dogg could produce a music video that features his assets. Eminem could put on a live performance that features his Bored Ape assets. DJ Khaled could rent his Bored Ape to Geico to replace their famous Gecko for a few commercials. Timbaland is launching a musical artist group using Bored Ape Yacht Club. Any owner can use the asset they own for financial or personal gain.
If someone minted a Bored Ape for $200 in April and now gets access to exclusive events, they could potentially rub shoulders with any celebrity on this list. They’re part of an exclusive social club and one that they can use to further their personal endeavors.
It’s hard to imagine a celebrity publicly taking a loss on the project. And even if the floor started to drop, there’s likely enterprising individuals who see the brand power of Bored Apes and would do what it takes to acquire one of the assets.
The project can’t go up in value forever, but my guess is we see more growth, more celebrities buy the assets, and more people figure out how to use the brand to earn income and build personal brands.
This list, created by KingBow, aggregated each asset holder with at least 1 million followers. It’s pictured earlier in this post, but it was worth writing out the list just to show how star-studded it really is across these 36 individuals:
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Snoop Dogg— 85.4 million followers
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Jimmy Fallon — 71.6 million followers
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Eminem — 55.8 million followers
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Steph Curry — 54.5 million followers
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DJ Khaled — 32.5 million followers
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Marshmello — 31.7 million followers
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Post Malone — 29.4 million followers
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Logan Paul — 27.9 million followers
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Future — 25.4 million followers
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Martin Garrix — 24 million followers
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Lil Baby — 23.9 million followers
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Steve Aoki — 17.6 million followers
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Gary Vaynerchuk — 12.2 million followers
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Rich the Kid — 10.4 million followers
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Mark Cuban — 10.2 million followers
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The Chainsmokers — 10 million followers
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LaMelo Ball — 8.7 million followers
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Diplo — 8.1 million followers
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Dez Bryant — 5.8 million followers
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Gunna — 5.7 million followers
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Faze Banks — 5.6 million followers
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Timbaland — 5.1 million followers
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Kygo — 4.8 million followers
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Fresh (Harley Fresh) — 3 million followers
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Stan Wawrinka — 2.9 million followers
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JustMaiko — 2.5 million followers
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Mike Shinoda — 2.5 million followers
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Von Miller — 2.4 million followers
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Tinie Tempah — 2.4 million followers
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Evan Luthra — 2.3 million followers
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Andrew Wiggins — 2.3 million followers
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Umar Kamani — 1.3 million followers
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BassJackers — 1.2 million followers
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Josh hard — 1.2 million followers
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BitBoy (Ben Armstrong) — 1.1 million followers
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The Moon (Carl) — 1 million followers
Conclusion
Bored Ape Yacht Club will be one of the most fun projects to watch in 2022. There’s already a rumor that Britney Spears bought a Bored Ape. There’s enough social proof that I do think more celebrities by Bored Ape NFTs. I think the creating team is poised to leverage the brand thoughtfully in 2022 and I think we will see more holders take full advantage of their commercial rights.
