🎤 Intro: From Gold Rush to JPEG Dust
There are bubbles, there are hype trains, and then there was the NFT explosion. Between 2020 and 2022, NFTs (non-fungible tokens — basically certificates saying you owned a digital file) went from crypto-nerd obscurity to front-page news. Overnight, digital monkeys, pixelated punks, and cartoon lions were being sold for house prices.
Every celeb under the sun jumped in. Tech bros called themselves “pioneers.” Everyday fans were told “this is the future of art, music, gaming, even your life, bro.”
And then? 💥
Like a soggy tent at Download Festival, the whole thing collapsed. Prices plummeted. Floor values (the minimum price an NFT collection trades for) went through the floorboards. People who bragged about owning “digital Rolexes” now had digital regrets.
This is their story. And in true Riff Report style, we’re gonna laugh, roast, and pour a pint out for the poor sods who lost fortunes on pixelated tat. 🍺
🎭 The Celebrity Victims: Millionaires Who Still Got Rinsed
NFTs weren’t just for crypto nerds. No, mun — Hollywood, sports stars, rappers, and influencers all piled in. Some bought apes, some launched their own projects, and some… got destroyed.
Justin Bieber – The Lonely Ape 🐵🎶
Justin Bieber bought Bored Ape #3001 in January 2022 for £1.1 million. The ape wasn’t even that rare. Today? It’s valued at around £47k — a drop of over 95%.
For context, that’s like headlining Glastonbury and only 20 people turn up. Painful.
Bieber flexed it on Instagram, fans cheered, and then the market collapsed. Now his ape’s worth less than a second-hand Ford Fiesta. He might’ve sung “Is it too late now to say sorry?” but the blockchain don’t accept apologies, lad.
Logan Paul – The CryptoZoo Disaster 🐼💀
Ah, Logan Paul. YouTube’s golden boy of chaos. He bought an NFT for £490k. Today? Around £8. Yes, EIGHT. That’s less than a pint of Brains at your local. 🍺
But that’s not all. He launched his own NFT project called CryptoZoo — “an entertaining game that makes you money,” he said. Fans invested millions. The game never worked. Lawsuits followed.
Logan tried to distance himself, but he became the poster boy for NFT failure. Imagine buying tickets to see Iron Maiden and ending up watching a local covers band in the pub — that’s CryptoZoo.
Snoop Dogg – The JPEG Godfather 🐕💨
Uncle Snoop went full NFT. He claimed to be anonymous NFT whale “Cozomo de’ Medici.” He dropped NFT albums, bought digital real estate in The Sandbox, and hyped NFTs harder than his own weed line.
But here’s the rub: most of his NFTs are now worthless. His label’s “NFT mixtapes”? Collecting dust. The Sandbox? Empty. Even Snoop had to admit not all NFTs were “dope.”
Turns out, not even the Doggfather can keep JPEGs cool.
Steve Aoki – The NFT DJ Set Nobody Wanted 🎧
Steve Aoki went all in. He said he made more money in one year from NFTs than from 10 years of music. He even dropped “A0K1VERSE” passes — giving fans exclusive access to his world.
But when the NFT crash hit, so did the Aoki floor. His investments tanked, and fans realised they’d basically paid hundreds of pounds for a JPEG and a Discord link.
Aoki hyped, Aoki dumped, and Aoki learned the hard way: you can’t remix market crashes.
Eminem & Others 🎤
- Eminem bought a Bored Ape, pairing it with his Slim Shady persona. Safe to say, not his best collab.
- Paris Hilton hyped NFTs on Jimmy Fallon’s show, flashing her ape once valued around £200k. Audience reaction? Dead silence. 😂
- Reese Witherspoon declared NFTs were “the future of storytelling.” Mate, more like the future of tragic endings.
💼 The Tech Bros: “We’re All Gonna Make It”… Except They Didn’t
The NFT boom created a new breed of wannabe rockstars: the tech bros. They strutted around Twitter like they were James Hetfield inventing thrash. Instead, they were Nickelback with a blockchain.
- Crypto Whales: Spent millions sweeping NFT collections. When prices tanked, they lost millions. Imagine buying all the merch at a gig only to find the band split the next day.
- Founders: Launched NFT projects with grand promises — “metaverse concerts,” “NFT houses,” “next-gen games.” Most rugged, disappeared, or flopped harder than a Muse concept album.
- VC Investors: Threw silly money at NFT start-ups. Now those firms are worth less than a bag of chips.
The lesson? You can’t code culture. You can’t mint community. And you definitely can’t sell 10,000 versions of the same cartoon monkey and call it art.
🤡 The Everyday Degens: Horror Stories From the Blockchain
This is where it gets tragic and hilarious. Everyday people thought they’d get rich. Instead, they got rekt.
Mortgage Meltdowns 🏠💔
People literally remortgaged homes to buy into “blue-chip” NFTs like Bored Apes. At peak, Apes were selling for hundreds of thousands of pounds. Today? Tens of thousands. That’s a house deposit gone — on a cartoon monkey.
Tuition Tears 🎓😭
Students spent student loan money on NFTs. Pixel Penguins, Lazy Lions, Cool Cats — all hyped on Discord. Now? Worth less than a kebab after a night out in Cardiff.
Rug Pulls 💀
So many projects promised the world. “We’re building a metaverse game.” “We’re the next Pokémon.” Within weeks, devs ran off with the cash. Investors were left with worthless tokens and broken Discords.
The Million-Pound Rock 🪨
One infamous buyer spent £1.1 million on a “CryptoRock.” It was literally a grey pixel rock. Today? Worth about £200. That’s less than a Steelhouse Festival weekend ticket. Only in crypto, mun.
🔟 Top 10 Funniest NFT Fails of All Time
- Logan Paul’s £490k NFT → £8 😂
- Jack Dorsey’s First Tweet – Sold for £2.3m. Later listed for resale. Highest offer? About £225. From history to poverty.
- Pixel Rocks – One sold for £1.1m. Now worth £200.
- Melania Trump’s NFT Auction – She bid on her own NFT to inflate the price. Busted. 💅
- Pixel Penguins – “Community project” once valued at £8k each. Now abandoned. Worth under £50. 🐧
- Lazy Lions – Promised “exclusive community.” Floor once £10k, now £40–£60. 🦁
- Squiggle NFTs – Literally just colourful lines. Some sold for £80k–£100k. Now worth a few hundred quid.
- Steve Aoki’s A0K1VERSE – Fans paid £500 each for NFT passes. Now they can’t shift them for £20.
- Donald Trump NFTs – Sold out at £80 each, peaked at £800, now back down around £50–£60. 🃏
- The Bored Ape Yacht Club Lawsuits – Investors who paid £200k–£300k now suing, as floor value hovers around £20k–£30k.
🎨 Culture Roast: Was It Ever About Art?
Here’s the thing: some genuine artists used NFTs to sell their work. But most of the big hype wasn’t about art. It was:
- Copy-paste monkeys 🐒
- Pixel cats 🐱
- Lazy “10,000 variations” projects 🎩🕶️
- Celeb cash-grabs 💸
It was less like the art world and more like a dodgy festival merch tent selling knock-offs.
🕳️ Aftermath: The NFT Graveyard
- Trading volume down 95%.
- Celebs never mention their apes anymore. Funny that.
- Investors left bitter and broke.
- Die-hard bros still yell “next bull run!” like a drunk in the car park yelling for “Freebird” at 2am.
The NFT scene isn’t dead, but it’s no longer the stadium-filling hype monster it was. It’s back in the toilet circuit, and honestly, that’s where it belongs.
🏴 Final Riff Report Verdict
NFTs were the Beanie Babies of the blockchain. Overhyped, overvalued, and destined for the bargain bin of history.
Winners? The early flippers.
Losers? Pretty much everyone else.
At least when you buy vinyl, a gig ticket, or a band tee, you’ve got something real. With NFTs, you got a monkey JPEG and the crushing weight of regret.
So next time someone tries to flog you an “NFT ticket” or “digital merch,” tell them: “C’mon butt, I’d rather buy a pint.”🍺
💀 Final Word: Watching celebs, tech bros, and everyday fans lose millions on cartoon monkeys might be the funniest encore the internet has ever seen. NFTs promised the moon 🌙, delivered rocks 🪨, and left everyone holding the world’s most expensive meme.
