May 5, 2022
By Murtuza Merchant
Even as billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk has put up a collage picture featuring several Bored Ape nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as his Twitter profile picture, with Ape 5809 in the center, experts have advised that investments should be based on thorough research and that investors should not get swayed by the views of any one individual.
Musk’s Twitter profile picture change was followed by a tweet that said, “I dunno … seems kinda fungible.”
The NFTs featured in Musk’s profile picture are all from different artists, each with a unique design and serial number.
ApeCoin, used to vote on community decisions and other services within the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ecosystem, immediately surged 20% to $17.60, data showed after the change, and was trading at $157 later in the day.
“We have seen the effect of Musk’s Twitter play on APE. This only goes on to prove once again how vulnerable cryptos are. Any currency, whether fiat or cryptos, should not get swayed by any one person, irrespective of his position or net worth. What is needed here is that the crypto community rallies together and does not buy or sell tokens basis the views of any one individual. There should be thorough research done before buying new tokens. People can make sound returns on their investments only if they invest for the long term based on their own research of the fundamentals surrounding the token,” says Aliasgar Merchant, Developer Relations Engineer at Ignite.
Shortly after Musk made the change, Michael Bouhanna, a contemporary art specialist at auction house Sotheby’s, took to Twitter to call him out for using the image. Bouhanna said he created the picture for Sotheby’s $24 million sale of 101 Bored Apes in September, which included Ape 5809.
Musk, who recently hogged the headlines for acquiring Twitter, is a crypto enthusiast and the recent move shows his apparent interest in NFTs too.
Anndy Lian, Chairman, BigONE exchange, says that Musk is trying to tell people that NFTs are kind of fungible in some ways and that one can replicate it freely, put it anywhere one wants but does not own it.
“The other thing is I do see a surge of 19% on ApeCoin when Elon changed his profile image to Bored Ape NFT. Playing the devil here. I would really hope to see a token plunges next time when Elon tweets about it. This would an interesting social experiment,” Lian adds.
Raj Kapoor, chief Advisor at aCryptoverse, a blockchain and crypto advisory firm, says Musk has a significant influence over the cryptocurrency market and this was clearly on display by this move.
“If we also observe, almost 10 Bored Apes had been sold since Musk revised his Twitter profile photo, and the floor price had raised by 10 Eth. I would call this the Musk Effect,” Kapoor says.
NFTs are non-interchangeable units of data stored on a blockchain that can be sold and traded and are often associated with digital files such as photos, videos, and audio.
BAYC NFTs are highly desired among NFT collectors. The recent NFT project launch by Yuga Labs, makers of the Bored Ape NFT, caused gas fees on Ethereum to rise by thousands of dollars.
Several celebrities have or had put up Bored Ape pictures as Twitter profile pictures in recent times. Basketball star Stephen Curry and musician Steve Aoki are among the celebrities who have done it.
Musk received flak from the NFT community, with some saying Elon Musk made a collage of “screenshotted bored apes his profile picture to troll NFT owners.” Others believe Musk is trying to signal his intention to get into the NFT space.
About the author
Murtuza Merchant is a senior journalist and an avid follower of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
