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Luxury

What celebrities are onto the NFT art trend? Twitter’s Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet for millions and Tesla CEO Elon Musk nearly auctioned a techno song – his girlfriend Grimes has already made millions, after all

STORYBusiness Insider
Rob Gronkowski, Lindsay Lohan, and Mark Cuban are all riding the NFT train. Photos: @gronk/Instagram, @guypewsey; @marc_oconnell/Twitter
Rob Gronkowski, Lindsay Lohan, and Mark Cuban are all riding the NFT train. Photos: @gronk/Instagram, @guypewsey; @marc_oconnell/Twitter
Fame and celebrity

  • NFL star Rob ‘The Gronk’ Gronkowski just announced his first NFT (non-fungible token) collection while Shawn Mendes will sell a virtual version of his guitar
  • Grimes has made millions from crypto art, Paris Hilton sold a cat painting for US$17,000, and Lindsay Lohan sold an artwork for US$50,000

As the craze for crypto art continues, celebrities, billionaires and influencers are getting in on the trend and selling some of their own. 

NFL player Rob Gronkowski, rapper Ja Rule, Lindsay Lohan and Mark Cuban, among others, have jumped on board. And Alex Atallah, the co-founder of NFT marketplace OpenSea, said he expects to see even more celebrities joining the space. 
NFL player Rob Gronkowski is just one of many celebrities getting into crypto art. Photo: Reuters
NFL player Rob Gronkowski is just one of many celebrities getting into crypto art. Photo: Reuters
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NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have allowed artists to sell their digital work for thousands and even millions of dollars. They’re gaining popularity as NFTs – which are generally digital assets that operate as a type of collector’s item and can’t be duplicated – are now a more than US$1 billion market.

As for CEOs, Twitter chief Jack Dorsey sold his very first tweet from 2006 for millions and donated the proceeds to charity. And just this week Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been a big promoter of cryptocurrencies, said he would sell a techno song as an NFT. But he later reneged, saying it didn’t feel right. His girlfriend, Grimes, has made millions selling crypto art. 
Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Photo: Austin American-Statesman/TNS
Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Photo: Austin American-Statesman/TNS

Billionaire and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban sold an NFT of a motivational quote, that read, “Nobody ever changed the world by doing what everyone else was doing – Mark Cuban.”

As for the music industry, Shawn Mendes teamed up with Genies, which makes 2D avatars, to make virtual versions of his guitar and gold ring and sell them as NFTs, Rolling Stone reported.

Singer Shawn Mendes. Photo: ABC/AFP
Singer Shawn Mendes. Photo: ABC/AFP

Hoping to get rid of bad vibes from his Fyre Festival days, rapper Ja Rule auctioned an oil painting that once hung in Fyre Media’s office as an NFT on a new platform Flipkick, and offered to sign it for the purchaser.

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