Original author: bayemon.eth, ChainCatcher

In a continuously declining market, users have little desire to trade NFTs, which are relatively illiquid and have a single use case. Data analysis shows that over 80% of BAYC and CryptoPunks have not been sold even once in 2023, indicating a severe lack of liquidity in the NFT market this year. Azuki, a leading project, had the misfortune of crashing at this time, completely eroding the patience and motivation of users holding NFTs, and digging a hole in the entire market.

The total market value of the entire NFT market has evaporated by a staggering 30% in just two weeks. NFT OG blue-chip projects Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks have been hit hard. BAYC, which once reached a floor price of 146 ETH, has dropped below 30 ETH, causing users to exclaim, "I haven't seen monkeys this cheap in a long time." CryptoPunks, which has always remained stable, also suffered a 20% drop due to the actions of "Azuki, the ignorant little brother," with the floor price almost breaking below 40 ETH.

Recently, Justin Bieber spent 500 ETH (equivalent to about $1.31 million) to purchase BAYC #3001 in January 2022, which is now worth less than $60,000, resulting in a loss of over a million dollars.

Yesterday, BAYC #3953, ranked second in rarity (according to rarity.tools data), was sold for only 200 ETH (equivalent to about $372,000), far below the peak prices of rare NFTs in the collection. It is worth noting that in October 2021, BAYC #8817, ranked 16 in rarity, was sold at a Sotheby's auction for $3.4 million, becoming the most expensive BAYC ever sold.

Looking back two years ago, the 2021 that was jokingly called the "NFT Year" of "fly NFT to the moon" not only witnessed the rise of numerous projects but also witnessed a nearly 3000-fold increase in the total market value of NFT, directly from 168,000 ETH to a peak of 5.06 million at the end of the year. Even at the node when the pandemic cast a gray panic over the world, "Non-Fungible Token" became the word of the year in 2021 according to the Collins Dictionary. Subsequently, many well-known celebrities and institutions both domestically and internationally such as Curry and Lin Junjie also acquired the highly sought-after NFTs like BAYC and CryptoPunks at high prices, thus entering the Web3 world.

In 2021, can the celebrities who rushed into the NFT frenzy imagine such a grand and novel concept could fall from the sky in just two years? This article will take stock of those celebrities who have owned or still own well-known NFT projects and are well-known domestically, and briefly calculate how much they have lost in this market that fell into an ice hole. "Capture the Dots.gif"

Lin Junjie

Lin Junjie is one of the celebrities who boarded the Web3 train in the "NFT Year". In March 2022, Lin Junjie tweeted a photo of a wallet with the BAYC #3914 design and thanked his buddy Huang Licheng for gifting him the NFT.

According to transaction history, BAYC #3914 was acquired by Huang Licheng for 2.59 ETH and then gifted to Lin Junjie. According to OpenSea's tracking of Lin Junjie's wallet address, in fact, he started buying NFTs in 2021. He even bought CryptoPunks #8601 for a high price of 125 ETH in 2021, when ETH was at a historical high of $4,742. This small picture was worth nearly $600,000 at that time, but in today's disillusioned market, #8601 has shrunk to only $84,000, causing Lin Junjie's wallet to lose assets worth as much as $500,000.

CryptoPunks #8601

As of now, JJ Lin has a total of 111 digital collectibles, including BAYC, CryptoPunks, Azuki, Azuki Elemental, and other projects.

In the past month of turmoil, the value of JJ Lin's NFT portfolio has dropped from 152.71 ETH to 91.12 ETH, with a cumulative loss of 40%. It is worth mentioning that when the reputation of Azuki Elementals was rubbed against the ground by the entire community, JJ Lin still minted 6 NFTs from that series on June 30th. He truly lives up to his reputation as the man who has held 23 domestic concerts this year, he's just being willful.

Jay Chou

The words "popularity" stand here, for the post-90s and post-00s generation, JJ Lin and Jay Chou often appear together. Another big brother who understands this principle well, in order for both to benefit, of course, they each get one. In April 2022, Jay Chou posted on Ins, stating that the NFT BAYC #3738 given to him by his buddy was stolen by a phishing website, and the NFT subsequently changed hands for 130 WETH (about $440,000), 155 WETH (about $500,000), and 164.69 WETH (about $575,500) respectively. Before that, the highest price this NFT had sold for was the 15 ETH it was purchased for by the big brother, and after staying in Jay Chou's wallet for three months, its value increased tenfold. The stolen NFT can be said to have indirectly caused Jay Chou a loss of $500,000. However, for him, this is just a fraction of the sales of his song "Mojito" in 2020.

Jay Chou, who has always loved keeping up with trends, has established his own fashion brand and brought popularity to his friend's milk tea shop. It makes sense for him to get involved with NFTs. Unlike JJ Lin, Jay Chou did not become an "NFT shopaholic," but instead teamed up with his fashion brand, PHANTACi, to create the NFT project called Phanta Bear, with himself as the creative prototype.

After all, it's "Jay Chou's bear." On the day Phanta Bear launched, it had 4944 holders, and the project's total market value reached its peak one week later, with the highest point being 51999.99 ETH.

Unlike Jay Chou's long-lasting dominance in pop music for over 20 years, Phanta Bear finally settled down after nearly two months of release amidst the intense turbulence in the NFT market. The floor price of Phanta Bear has also dropped from its peak of 7.3 ETH to the current 0.11 ETH. Unfortunately, even Jay Chou's presence couldn't break the curse of the bear.

Xu Jinglei

She is even more influential.

Xu Jinglei is one of the early players in NFT. In 2021, Xu Jinglei changed her Instagram avatar to the Animetas series NFT. Observant friends quickly discovered Xu Jinglei's OpenSea account from her avatar. Based on her holding records, Xu Jinglei had already owned 400+ collectibles in 2022, and now she holds over 1300. Her collection includes BAYC, MAYC, DeFi Apes, Azuki, 6 Sixty 6, and other series.

If we only consider BAYC and exclude transfers, Xu Jinglei herself has bought BAYC 5 times. Moreover, from her high-priced purchase of BAYC #1505 for 95 ETH on February 16 this year, she seems to be the type of player who goes all-in when she finds something she likes. Based on the current market floor price and ETH/USD exchange rate, just these five monkeys have cost Xu Jinglei over $220,000 in losses.

By the same logic, Xu Jinglei, who still holds and continues to go all-in on Azuki, 6 Sixty 6, and other series, should have incurred losses exceeding $1 million.

Unlike the majority of new series NFTs in Jay Chou and JJ Lin's accounts, most of which are received through transfers from others, Xu Jinglei's account remains active in the trading market. According to NFTGO's data, Xu Jinglei's gas usage for transactions alone has reached 715.67 ETH, equivalent to nearly $1.54 million. However, in a continuously declining market, active trading cannot compensate for the continuous loss in portfolio value. The recent turbulence has reduced Xu Jinglei's portfolio value from 715.59 ETH to 628.85 ETH. Nevertheless, Xu Jinglei seems to genuinely love "small pictures" as she has purchased 40 new collectibles in the past week, unaffected by the market sentiment.

Shawn Yue

Not all celebrities who invest in NFT projects have the "pure love" for small pictures like Xu Jinglei. Another early player in NFT, Louis Koo, collects items mainly through donations from others. Taking CryptoPunks as an example, Louis Koo currently holds 8 NFTs from this series in his account, of which only 2 were purchased by himself (although they were acquired at high prices of 70 ETH and 85 ETH, respectively). If we just calculate these two pixelated characters, Louis Koo has lost $150,000.

With the popularity of "Jay Chou Bear" in early 2022, Louis Koo also took advantage of the market hype to launch his own NFT brand, "ZombieClub Token," which had reportedly been in preparation for half a year. The sale was sold out in less than two minutes, immediately occupying the first place in trading on the entire OpenSea platform, and setting a record by selling out completely in just 2 hours and 42 minutes. ZombieClub's total platform sales at that time amounted to 35 million Hong Kong dollars, approximately $4.48 million. So, if Louis Koo wants to recover the losses of the past years, he would have to triple his profits from that time.

Unlike other celebrities, it seems that Louis Koo's collection of small pictures is not purely for "collecting" or issuing his own NFT brand. In 2021, Louis Koo collaborated with the globally renowned auction house Christie's to hold an event called "No Time Like Present," where he sold CryptoPunks, BAYC, Meebits, and other collectibles, ultimately generating a turnover of 120 million Hong Kong dollars, approximately $15.6 million. It is worth noting that a year later, Christie's auction house only sold a total of 87 NFTs for a mere $5.9 million.

Auctioning collectibles and establishing his own NFT brand, it seems that Louis Koo might have had some arbitrage intentions. After all, he made a profit of nearly $20 million from it at the time. Although the title describes a "loss" situation, the more I write, the more I feel that he didn't actually suffer any loss. Given the current freezing point of the NFT market, even if the 382 items currently held by Louis Koo corresponding to projects all go to zero, perhaps the previous income would be enough to cover the losses brought by an extreme market. I wonder if Louis Koo, who treated NFTs as an investment, is now grateful for the choices he made at the market peak?

Cai Wensheng

On May 1, 2022, Cai Wensheng, the chairman of Meitu Group, a listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, also bought a "Bored Ape Yacht Club" NFT. He posted on his social media, saying, "I couldn't resist Fomo and bought BAYC #8848."

Let's take a look at Cai Wensheng's wallet address. According to OpenSea data, Cai Wensheng currently holds 4 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. The cheapest price for these four monkeys is 87 ETH, equivalent to approximately $202,000. Among these four NFTs, Cai Wensheng personally purchased two of them. One is BAYC #8848, bought on May 1 for 187 ETH (approximately $560,000), and the other is BAYC #8265, bought on May 13 for 133.95 ETH (approximately $310,000). Based on the current floor price and ETH/USD exchange rate, these two BAYC NFTs are now only worth $56,000, meaning that this "crypto veteran" has lost a considerable amount of money, around $810,000, on these two monkeys.

Bored Ape Yacht Club was not Cai Wensheng's first foray into NFTs. In 2021, he also traded CryptoPunks. The last average transaction price of the five CryptoPunks held in his address was around 110 ETH. Cai Wensheng himself purchased CryptoPunk #2558 for 125 ETH in August 2021, at a market price of $400,000. However, its value has now dropped to only $80,000, resulting in an 80% loss on Cai's investment.

Just three small pictures have caused this seasoned player in the business world to lose over $1.1 million. It remains to be seen whether Cai Wensheng can resist the temptation and refrain from making impulsive moves.

Zhu Xiaohu

On April 30, 2022, according to OpenSea data, an address named "allenzhu.eth" bought the "Bored Ape Yacht Club #9279" NFT for 170 ETH (approximately $500,000). It is worth mentioning that Allen Zhu, the managing partner of GGV Capital, has the same English name as the buyer. Additionally, Zhu Xiaohu's latest WeChat avatar has also been updated to the "BAYC#9279" image.

OpenSea shows that the Bored Ape Yacht Club #9279 NFT has changed ownership and is now held in a wallet account without a known owner. However, judging from recent WeChat Moments screenshots shared by Zhu Xiaohu, he still seems to refer to himself as the owner of BAYC #9279. This particular account is quite remarkable, as it holds a total of 523 NFTs, all of which were transferred from different addresses, and it includes 187 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.

These 187 NFTs are now valued at "only" 5,760 ETH (approximately $10,938,000), which is a significant decrease from their peak value of 146 ETH. The overall value has depreciated by 80%.

As for the wallet that Zhu Xiaohu used to purchase #9279, it now only holds NFTs from six projects: Tatols NFT, WomenUnite Cold, Life Beyond Origin Collection, and others. Unlike his successful investments in DiDi and Ele.me in the real world, four out of the six NFT series he owns have lost all value. The remaining two have values of only 0.188 ETH (approximately $357) and 0.3 MATIC (approximately $0.201), respectively.