Jimmy Fallon Catches NFT Fever, Changes Profile Pic

Comedian and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon has changed his profile pic on Twitter. Now his 51 million-plus followers probably know what an NFT is.

Fallon’s new image is one of a Bored Ape non-fungible token (NFT), which is part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club digital collection on the Ethereum blockchain. There are more than 10,000 bored ape NFTs in this collection, and they  have been selling at a floor price of more than 33 ETH at last check.

Fallon announced on The Tonight Show during an interview with popular NFT artist Beeple that he had become the proud owner of his first NFT. Beeple became famous for the sale of his Everydays NFT, which sold for $69 million at Christie’s and thrust digital collectibles into the limelight. Now the artist has sold a physical piece of art, called Human One, for close to $30 million.

 

.@Beeple reacts to some of the firsts pictures he created for his Everydays NFT. #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/8V76CvZbXY

— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) November 11, 2021

Fallon took the opportunity to reveal that he had bought an ape NFT and explained that he used MoonPay to make the purchase, which he further described as PayPal for crypto.

 

Permission to come a bored? @BoredApeYC #NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/1pbBt2gB1V

— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) November 12, 2021

The value of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs has been on the rise. The price of one of the collectibles rose from about $27,000 in May to over $1.5 million on Nov. 12, according to The Action Network’s Darren Rovell.

 

Bored Ape #1837 sold this morning for $1,558,893.

It sold on May 31 for $27,481.

It is one of 46 apes with "solid gold." pic.twitter.com/zXzHUv5Dmk

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 12, 2021

 

NFT Platforms

Fallon bought his NFT on OpenSea, which according to DappRadar is the leading NFT marketplace and where most of the buyers flock to. OpenSea has generated over $10 billion in NFT sales, $1.7 billion of which has been transacted in the last 30 days. Most OpenSea transactions happen on Ethereum, but the platform also supports Polygon and Klatyn.

Ethereum is the go-to network for NFTs but it’s not the only one. Other popular blockchains for NFTs include Solana, Binance Smart Chain, and Wax, to name a few. The network fees on Ethereum, which have been known to surpass the price of the asset being purchased at times, have been sending NFT creators and buyers alike to other blockchains.

Jimmy Fallon’s interest in the NFT space has raised the profile of digital collectibles.

It has done little, however, to lift the Ethereum price on Friday, as the top 10 cryptocurrencies continue to take a breather from their recent impressive run-up.