A new NFT collection called PhantaBear has beaten the sales volume of Bored Ape in the past week

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A new line of NFTs has dethroned the Bored Ape Yacht Club when it comes to seven-day trading volume: PhantaBear.

The NFT collection was launched on January 1 this year, backed by Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou and Hong Kong actor Edison Chen

On January 14, it had a floor price of 3.88 ether or roughly $12,750.

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A new line of non-fungible tokens has dethroned the highly coveted Bored Ape Yacht Club on trading volume in the past seven days: PhantaBear.

The NFT collection was launched on January 1, backed by Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou and Hong Kong actor Edison Chen. The 10,000-piece collection sold out less than an hour after it was released on New Year’s Day, and its price has also tripled since then.

The project was jointly launched by Chou’s fashion brand, PHANTACi, and new NFT platform Ezek. And just like Bored Apes, each PhantaBear has unique features and traits.

While trading volume is just one way to measure the popularity of an NFT, it is indicative of people’s interest in the collection. And data shows that the bears are beating the apes.

In the past seven days, the trading volume of PhantaBear surged to $63.82 million with its lowest floor price at 4 ether (roughly $13,200), according to NFTstats.com. Bored Ape saw $54.51 million in trading volume with a floor price of 74.69 ether (around $247,000). Also in the same time period, 185 apes were sold compared to 4,812 bears.

The dethroning of the Bored Ape collection is notable as it has been considered one of the most sought-after NFTs since launching in April 2021. High-profile figures who own a part of the collection include NBA star Stephen Curry, who purchased one for $180,000, and hip hop artist Eminem, who bought one for $462,000.

This continuous interest pushed the sales of Bored Ape to jump past $1 billion in January. A month before in December, its floor price surpassed that of CryptoPunks — considered one of the original NFT collections since it came out in 2017 — for the first time on OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace.

The recent emergence of PhantaBear illustrates the ongoing frenzy behind NFTs, digital representations of artwork, sports cards, or other collectibles tied to a blockchain.

In 2021, NFTs recorded over $12 billion in sales on the ethereum blockchain, where the majority of these tokens run, according to data from NonFungible.com, marking a stunning 17,864% year-on-year growth compared to 2020’s $67 million.

Quarterly sales count and sales value (USD) Kraken Intelligence, Nonfungible.com

NFTs, as a whole, still have yet to fully break into the mainstream due to their highly speculative nature, and many question the intrinsic value of these tokens.

But celebrities, digital artists, and traditional art auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s are riding the NFT wave, according to a 2021 year-end report by Kraken Intelligence.

“By the end of 2021, the NFT market boasted a diverse audience and made waves in several sectors, namely in art, collectibles, DeFi, gaming, metaverse, and utility-driven NFTs,” Kraken said.

How to make a million dollars buying digital cartoons of apes. No, really

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My workout coach, Rick Gonzalez, knows that if he tells me stories during my exercise sets, I get distracted and the pain decreases. We talk football, movies, politics.

The other day he asked me, “What do you think of NFTs?”

I’m like, what?

“Non-fungible tokens,” he said.

Oh, I said, I hadn’t paid much attention. But then he got mine.

He told me how his cousin was making big dollars, er, bitcoin buying and selling digital works of art. An artist named Beeple is credited with kicking off the digital art boom a year ago when Christie’s Auction House sold a creation of his for $69 million.

Coach Rick had talked to his cousin, Jennifer Reece, a player in the NFT market. She told him, he said, that NFT buyers were preparing to move much of their life into the online metaverse.

This month, Melania Trump announced she’ll auction a white hat she wore as first lady, along with digitized versions. She previously offered an NFT watercolor drawing of her eyes.

Some political candidates, instead of asking for donations, are selling NFTs to supporters. Because it’s new, it’s more exciting than a coffee mug or a baseball hat.

Celebrities have jumped in, including Jimmy Fallon, Tom Brady, Snoop Dogg and Mark Cuban, all buying and selling NFTs.

It’s fun, and often profitable, but it turns out NFTs are also ripe for scams.

About NFTs

To learn more, I put a piece of my “artwork” for sale as an NFT. I also called Coach Rick’s cousin, Jennifer, with questions.

Jennifer told me how she spent $5,000 on a ‘dogecoin” investment that was miniscule. It was like 0.0001 of a coin, she explained, similar to a penny stock. After several months, she sold it for $20,000, an excellent 4-to-1 return on investment.

Here comes the uh-oh part. “Had I waited a little longer, like the $5,000 became $2 million,” she said. “I was straight up depressed when I did the math. My God, what have I done? It was really hard to deal with. I was so close.”

She shifted her attention from coin investment to NFTs. Among the most sought NFTs are digital drawings of cartoon apes. Because she got in apes early, May of last year, she paid only .08 ETH (Ethereum crypto-currency) for her first ape. That was $262. Now, she says, she has ape holdings worth up to $10 million.

She owns 30 of the apes, out of 10,000 original apes.

The apes represent humans 20 years from now who made a lot of money and are bored.

Logo from Ape Fest 2021 in New York City where members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, an online community, met for the first time in person. (Courtesy of Jennifer Reece.) (David Lieber)

They hang at the virtual Bored Ape Yacht Club. Collectors want apes, but now they’re ultra-expensive. Rap artist Eminem purchased an ape for $462,000 – or 123.45 ETH.

Drawing from Ape Fest 2021 in New York City where members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, an online community, met for the first time in person. (Courtesy of Jennifer Reece.)

How are 30 digital drawings of apes worth $10 million? Jennifer estimates her apes are worth $6 million, and the “traits,” or add-ons, she’s bought for them – robes, hats, hair – likely add another $4 million.

Last year, she went to New York and attended Ape Fest where she met other ape owners, and together they rode in a real yacht on the Hudson River.

Concert from Ape Fest 2021 in New York City where members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, an online community, met for the first time in person. (Courtesy of Jennifer Reece.)

Web 3.0, here we come

Jennifer explained that I’m locked in Web 2.0 world while she’s advancing toward Web 3.0.

Web 1.0 was the beginning of the World Wide Web. People and companies had their own static web pages.

Web 2.0 brings in social media and community focus. It’s about getting clicks, pushing advertising and collecting data, often for sale. Sound familiar?

Web 3.0, on the other hand, doesn’t hoard data; it’s shared. Individuals, not companies, build this new world together. Artificial intelligence plays a greater role.

Selling my first NFT

I tried this. I signed the cover of my new biography on Ross Perot Sr. to offer it for sale as digital art. Then I scanned it into a digital version and “minted” it using the popular website, OpenSea, where I placed it for sale.

I bought $50 in ETH on CoinBase and stored it in my new digital wallet. (Note: Last I checked that investment in two days, jumped to $59 because the price of ETH went up.)

So far, no buyers.

NFT ripoffs

As The Watchdog, I worry about scams and rip-offs in this new world.

“There’s a lot of money involved,” Jennifer said. “A lot of bad actors, too. It’s easy to scam with fake websites that look real. Every day there are stories about people buying their first NFTs, and then the NFTs are gone. It’s heartbreaking, but the NFT community will help. Digital wallets can get raided, too.”

Must make for lots of drama among the apes at the Yacht Club. I’ll know soon enough. My workout coach Rick just bought his first ape. So we’ll have plenty to talk about.

Note: The Dallas Public Library is hosting me today — Friday, Jan. 14 — from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in a virtual talk about my new book on Ross Perot Sr. — SEARCHING FOR PEROT — My Journey to Discover Texas’ Top Family. Sign up before 11 a.m. at this site: bit.ly/Lieber-Perot-Library.

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Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Sold For 100 ETH

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The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is an exclusive community for holders of the ape and mutant themed NFT collections on Ethereum’s blockchain. Commonly referred to as the Bored Apes, only 10,000 generative art pieces will ever be in existence.

What happened: Bored Ape #8094 just sold for 100.00 ETH (CRYPTO: ETH) ($335,148 USD). The value of Bored Apes is typically determined by the Ape’s attributes, with the laser eyes, crown, and golden fur traits being the most coveted.

Here are a list of its attributes and how many others have the same trait:

Background: Gray (1,170)

Gray (1,170) Eyes: Scumbag (233)

Scumbag (233) Mouth: Bored Unshaven (1,551)

Bored Unshaven (1,551) Fur: Golden Brown (778)

Golden Brown (778) Hat: Halo (324)

Halo (324) Clothes: Toga (202)

Why it Matters: Bored Apes are the ultimate store of culture for NFT collectors. The NFT collection has gained huge influence in 2021, with an ever growing list of top tier celebrities making apes their profile pictures on Twitter. With the recent explosion in popularity surrounding the Metaverse, rare blockchain-based avatars are all the rage for those looking to flex online.

Being a member of the Bored Ape Yacht Club is not just about flexing online. Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Apes throw exclusive parties often with free private performances from members of the club such as Lil Baby. Other notable celebrities in the club include Post Malone, Stephen Curry, Dez Bryant, and Jimmy Kimmel.

Yuga Labs also created another NFT collection known as the Mutant Apes, which also provides membership to the elusive club. There are a total of 20,000 Mutant Apes, and the price floor is historically lower than the Bored Apes.

See Also: NFT Release Calendar and Best NFT Projects of 2021

Data provided by OpenSea.

Checkout the full Bored Ape Yacht Club collection

You can learn more about this NFT here.

This article was generated by Benzinga’s automated content engine and reviewed by an editor.

Adidas and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Project Partnership

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Welcome to the Wild West. On December 17, Adidas’ Into the Metaverse drop with digital artist Gmoney, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Punks Comics last December 17 sold 29,620 NFTs — non-fungible tokens — netting collaborators more than $22 million from an afternoon of sales. And they didn’t sell a single shoe.

“It’s so refreshing to see a culturally influential brand like Adidas Originals work so closely hand-in-hand with the NFT community,” Gmoney said about working closely with the brand behind the scenes. “At every step, they’ve included the right partners from the crypto, Metaverse, and NFT community and listened to their thoughts at an early stage.”

No matter how strange or new they may seem, NFT’s have become an established part of art and commercial culture in just the last year. In essence, an NFT is a digital receipt that certifies the unique ownership of a digital asset. NFT’s grant individual control of online objects. These can include paintings, gifs, and videos as well as personal graphic items like shoes, shirts, and other gear. Into the Metaverse, for instance, offered online gear and token membership to a very exclusive fan club connected to special merch drops.

These NFT’s exist in shared worlds — the collection of metaverse platforms that developers hope lead to Web3 — the internet’s third iteration. NFTs are one of the pillars of this vision to reshape the internet into a more cooperative space. Adidas, now a Web3 forerunner, is encouraging members to shape products and experiences for its wider metaverse community.

“As part of our ambition to celebrate ideas that are defining a new age of originality, we’ve landed at the forefront of creativity, which is the open Metaverse,” Erika Wykes-Sneyd, vice president of Adidas originals marketing and communications Erika Wykes-Sneyd said. “It’s a natural place for Adidas Originals to enter: A wild world where possibilities are truly limitless and where anyone can express and be rewarded for their most original ideas.”

Related Guides

That emergence began with a partnership with already established brands like Bored Ape. The digital creators began with 10,000 NFT ape avatars last year, all featuring different ‘personalities.’ The cost for an original? 71 ether or about $267,000. Members include Eminem, Jimmy Fallon, Steph Curry, and Snoop Dogg.

BREAKING: @Eminem just bought BAYC #9055 for 123.45 ETH ($461,868.42) WELCOME to the BAYC 🤗 pic.twitter.com/UvQFntDa8Q — m0rgan.ethᵍᵐ 💎🙆🏼‍♀️🆘 (@Helloimmorgan) December 31, 2021

Adidas opened this platform to the proletariat in mid-December, offering tickets to the club for about $765. This leveling of access is what has branding strategist Anne Olderog excited about Web3’s potential.

“My perspective is a huge world of falling boundaries,” Vivaldi branding strategist Anne Olderog said.

Vivaldi, a large, independent global strategy and business transformation firm, spoke to The Manual to relate Vivaldi CEO and founder Erich Joachimsthaler’s vision of the metaverse as an opportunity for the company’s clients to transform and succeed in this new digital world. In his book, The Interaction Field, Joachimstaler posits a shift from competition and disruption to collaboration, participation, and engagement, with a focus on interactions rather than transactions.

“The metaverse is much better suited to community building that is at the core of human pursuits. Nike is not selling sneakers. They’re creating an opportunity for somebody to express themselves and create a life unencumbered by the boundaries of the physical world,” Olderog said.

Physical objects lose resonance as limitless creative opportunities arise.

“In a traditional business models pipeline, it’s me trying to sell you something,” Olderog said. “(Metaverse) platforms derive the value not from the transaction, but from an exchange across the ecosystem. It’s an ecosystem not dominated by players, but shared and generating broad models.”

Olderog has over 20 years of branding experience with Fortune 500 companies, authored a book about Barack Obama’s brand of post-modern politics, and wrote a prize-winning work on changing cultural values and emerging societal trends in the internet age, particularly the opportunity that Web3 presents.

“The equity barrier and the hurdle that it represents in our society and our world. In the Metaverse, there’s an opportunity for a completely open playing field. Everyone is welcome.”

For Olderog, blockchain enables complete transparency on the origins of products and of participants, open communication that eliminates the need for internet gatekeepers.

“The opportunity with Web3 is to create better communities — how to bring the right people to the conversation and take the wrong people out,” Olderog.

There’s endless opportunity for self-expression and building of new culture — as long as you have a reliable connection to the internet and the initial funds to invest.

Read More: Nike Dives Further Into the Metaverse With Virtual Shoe Company

Editors' Recommendations

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT: 5 Biggest Celebrities Who Invested in Unique NFT Collection

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The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10,000 unique Bored Ape NFTs that is now worth billions in the Ethereum blockchain.

The popularity of Bored Ape Yacht Club didn’t just entice investors, traders, and NFT enthusiasts, it also garnered the attention of entrepreneurs, artists, and athletes, on top of the long list of BAYC owners.

Eminem

Eminem whose real name is Marshal Mathers popularly holds BAYC #9055. Aside from being a rapper and entertainer, he is also known as an entrepreneur.

Fortune reported that Eminem’s Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT art has been bought with a price tag of 123.45 ETH which equates to $462,000. The rapper, just like any NFT or Bored APe Yacht Club owner, quickly made the expensive art a profile picture on Twitter.

One of the world’s greatest rappers of all time looks like he has been involved in NFTs for a long time now. The purchase was made in the first week of January as reported on Jan. 5, and his recent BAYC #9055 is now a part of his collection.

The https://t.co/vCNztATSCO Weekly NFT Update:

📈Benchmark: #NFT sales increase by 2% on OpenSea

🐵 @Eminem joins @BoredApeYC for 123.45$ETH

📺Samsung announces NFT platform for smart TVs

Full details👇https://t.co/kU0VvVoBts — Crypto.com (@cryptocom) January 5, 2022

At some point, Eminem was speculated to own the Shady Holdings on Open Sea which displayed 22 NFTs back then. The widespread popularity of NFTS is becoming more undeniable, it is so undeniable that it even caught eyes with the famous Detroit-native rapper Eminem bought the NFT art from Twitter user @Gee__Gazza, who had openly expressed his hope that Marshall would one day possess it. Fast forward for a couple of months, Em bought the Ape from him for a hefty sum at the start of 2022, which definitely made his dream a reality.

I still find myself thinking how crazy it is that I bought a BAYC in July cause it looked at bit like @Eminem and then 6 months later he bought it off me. This space is actually bonkers 🤯 — GeeGazza  (@Gee__Gazza) January 11, 2022

Stephen Curry

Stephen Curry has boarded the Bored Ape Yacht Club with Ape #7990. Curry wasn’t the first notable athlete to buy a Bored Ape, but he was surely the most prominent one when he joined in late August last year.

#NewProfilePic I don’t need to see when I have the vision 🚀 welcome the 8th @BoredApeYC to the Aoki family. #9309 pic.twitter.com/RSJcUuAe5U — Steve Aoki (@steveaoki) January 4, 2022

The NBA Star of The Golden State Warriors purchased the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT price was worth 55 ETH which is about $180,000. Later on, Curry was seen hanging out in the project’s official Discord server shortly after the purchase.

Notable traits of the Ape Curry bought include blue fur, zombie eyes, and a tweed suit. Just like multiple NFT holders, Curry currently uses his Bored Ape as his Twitter profile picture.

Furthermore, in collaboration with Under Armour, Curry also debuted his Stephen Curry NFT sneakers.

Read Also: Upcoming NFT Games December 2021: ‘Hypebeast,’ ‘Sloties,’ and More New Titles

Logan Paul

Logan Paul has long been known as an influencer and YouTuber to rave about his positive support and enthusiasm in NFTs and cryptocurrency along with his brother Jake Paul. He owns the Bored Ape Yacht Club Ape #1442 along with many others as seen in his OpenSea account.

Logan Paul has been vocal about his NFT collection on Twitter.

The famous Youtuber does not just own NFTs from Bored Ape Yacht Club, he also owns multiple CryptoPunk NFTs. As reported in Benzinga, the amount paid for his Ape was worth 34 ETH and it is now projected to be worth more than double that in Ether tokens.

Paul’s Ape is distinguished features include DMT fur, 3D spectacles, and a captain’s hat.

Steve Aoki

The artist, EDM DJ, and Benihana heir Steve Aoki own numerous NFTs, including a CryptoPunk and Bored Ape Yacht Club. Aoki has BAYC #8716.

He has been interested immensely interested in the arts in the crypto and NFT space. His enthusiasm lead him last year to collaborate with the prominent Sotheby’s Metaverse auction along with Paris Hilton and all the well-known artists in the space. with artIn 2021,

With that, Aoki also launched his own NFT line.

In addition, he’s been a part of the NFT community for longer than other celebrity Ape owners are. BAYC #8716 was purchased by Aoki for 49 Ethereum.

Mark Cuban

As reported by Decrypt, according to community resource The Bored Ape Gazette, billionaire investor, Dallas Mavericks owner, and “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban received his Bored Ape as a present in May.

He’s kept it since then, despite soaring prices, and even put it on his own Lazy.com NFT gallery profile. Aside from the NFT art collection he has, Cuban is also known as a huge supporter of Dogecoin and has invested in a number of NFT and crypto-related businesses.

Related Article: Defi Kingdoms Free NFT Game: How to Earn, Is It Better Than Axie Infinity?