Celebrities

In a nutshell, Celebrity NFTs are non-fungible tokens that are created, promoted, or owned by celebrities. By lending their star power to NFT collections, actors, athletes, and musicians significantly raise the profile of these digital assets. NFTs based on films or those launched by eminent actors have also added to this trend.

Acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino announced his NFT collection titled Tarantino NFT is a collection of seven NFTs based on his iconic 1994 film Pulp Fiction. Created in collaboration with SCRT Labs, they feature original handwritten screenplays broken into several scenes and also have Tarantino’s audio commentary clips. The first of the lot sold for US$1.1million but the sale of the rest are put on hold due to a lawsuit filed by the film’s production house Miramax who claims intellectual property rights over them.

Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese’s producer Niels Juul, who exec produced ‘The Irishman’, wants to make the “first-ever Hollywood feature that’s fully funded by NFTs. To do so, he founded the production company NFT Studios, and will be using it to fund a series of films entirely through the sale of NFTs which will also give holders exclusive access to certain rights, including financial rights. The first of these films is slated to be comedy-drama A Wing and a Prayer, which follows the story of Brian Milton, the first man to circumnavigate the globe in a microlight aircraft in 1998.

Actress Sunny Leone also became the first woman from the film industry to step into the NFT space with Misfitz by Sunny Leone, comprising a series of bold and quirky NFTs.

Most celebrities with their own NFTs see the tokens as a way to deepen their connection with fans. Snoop Dogg, for example, created digital art that harkens back to the imagery and themes that defined the earlier stages of his career. By bringing his trademark style into the digital sphere, he’s maintaining his place on the cultural frontlines.

Celebrity NFTs can also raise massive amounts of money for meaningful charitable causes. Ellen Degeneres, for example, raised over $33,000 for a food-relief organization by selling NFTs of her bad cat drawing. Musician Shawn Mendes used the proceeds from his NFT collection to support young artists. Paris Hilton donated the earnings from her NFTs to Meals on Wheels, a charity organization that helps feed struggling seniors. These examples show how well-meaning people can use celebrity NFTs to fund important social projects.

For other celebrity NFT producers, the tokens serve as a way to fight for social and cultural change. The model Emily Ratajkowski released an NFT of herself standing in front of a once-appropriated image, thereby reinforcing the idea that models should have the right to profit from their own images. This important message is meant to be empowering to creators from around the world.

Some celebrities may also be investing in NFTs as an asset, hoping their support of a collection will increase the price and boost the value of the tokens they’ve already purchased. When considering celebrity NFTs, it’s worth remembering this potential motivation.

While most celebrities profess noble reasons for their involvement in NFT markets, investors and traders should remember that actors and musicians are neither omniscient nor omnibenevolent. In some cases, celebrities have supported collections that ended up being scams. It’s your responsibility as a trader to bring a healthy skepticism to all potential investments, including those that have been promoted by your favorite celebrities.