A screenshot on Twitter indicates that he's the proud owner of Bored Ape #599, one of the 10,000 in existence.
Jimmy Fallon has bought his very first NFT.
The popular talk show host revealed he's now the proud owner of a Bored Ape.
He was speaking to Beeple, the digital artist who has made tens of millions of dollars by selling non-fungible tokens.
Fallon said he used MoonPay to complete the transaction — describing it as "PayPal, but for crypto."
A screenshot on Twitter indicates that he's the proud owner of Bored Ape #599, one of the 10,000 in existence.
— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) November 12, 2021
It has a number of rare attributes, including cream fur, a sea captain's hat, heart sunglasses and a navy-striped T-shirt.
Records from OpenSea show that the NFT last changed hands for 46.6 ETH, worth about $217,000 at the time of writing.
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A Big Deal
Jimmy Fallon commands millions of viewers a night for The Tonight Show, and it's highly likely that his interview with Beeple has introduced NFTs to a brand-new audience.
The star has more than 51 million followers on Twitter, and a post featuring his Bored Ape has been tweeted more than 10,000 times. Crucially, it's now his avatar, too.
A number of his followers shared tongue-in-cheek messages underneath — including a screenshot of the Bored Ape and writing:
"Jimmy delete this right now this isn't funny. This is my property, as you see here I've posted it. You've stolen this. The blockchain will prove it."
Others took it upon themselves to save the picture and proudly proclaim they had "stolen" the NFT from Fallon. But as this Twitter user pointed out, this is kind of missing the point:
"It's not the same thing at all. Like taking a photo of a DaVinci drawing and having it framed. You can prove ownership and authenticity of NFTs forever. The artists deserve to make money off their work. No one can steal and sell their art anymore with NFTs."
