Justin Bieber has been getting a fair old roasting online after he seems to have paid massively over the odds for a ‘Bored Ape’ NFT.
Naturally, there is some debate about whether he actually did, and whether he paid that much, or whether it's just a cynical marketing ploy, but that hasn't stopped the gums flapping over on Twitter.
If you’ve been on the internet recently, you’ll probably have noticed that everyone seems to be talking about NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.
On the surface, loads of people seem to have become very interested in parting with sizeable chunks of cryptocurrency for individual pictures that have some sort of unique identifier that means that only they can own them.
Questions like what exactly they are, whether or not you can just right click and save, or whether they are an absolute waste of f***ing money are questions for another article, as this one is primarily concerned with Canadian pop star Justin Bieber and his latest purchase.
Those with only a basic understanding of NFTs – which is just about anyone who doesn’t own one – will probably be familiar with the Bored Ape series, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Anyway, Beebz has just purchased his own ape for a cool $1.29 million (£950,000) which is (again apparently) 500 Ethereum.
Now, if that information doesn’t make you immediately make you want to go to sleep, you might still be interested to know that he then shared his new purchase from BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club) with the followers on his Instagram page, accompanying it with lyrics from his 2021 hit ‘Lonely’.
He wrote: "What if you had it all, but nobody to call, maybe then you'd know me. Cuz I've had everything but no one's listening and that's just f***in lonely."
Touching stuff, you’ll surely agree.
Anyway, some of the eagle-eyed NFTers out there have noticed that the going rate for this particular ape was $208,237 (£154,115) on January 29, meaning that Justin paid well over the odds.
Of course, they flocked to Twitter to share their glee at his over-priced purchase.
One wrote: "Justin Bieber really paid 5x the Bored Ape floor price for an ape with no rare traits.
"He just got finessed."
Another said: “Next time you think you’re down bad, just remember that [Justin Bieber] just bought a floor ape for 500 ETH,”
There were others who came to his defence, quite rightly pointing out that the singer can well afford it.
One such person said: "Yes we all know that @justinbieber could have bought a more expensive/rarer ape but, he doesn't give a shit, this is just a flex, to get people talking about it. A statement piece. Welcome!"
Whatever your thoughts on the matter might be, one thing most of us can agree on is that NFTs are difficult to understand, and almost certainly utterly pointless.
At least, for those of us who can’t bring ourselves to care, anyway.
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: US News, Celebrity, Justin Bieber, Cryptocurrency, Money, Weird
Tom Wood