The price of NFTs supported by Jay Chou and Edison Chen has repeatedly hit new highs. Can celebrity NFTs invest for a long time?

The limited edition is 10,000 pieces, the price is 0.26ETH, the total price exceeds 62 million yuan, and it is all sold out in about 40 minutes.

This is the data of the first limited sale of the NFT project PhantaBear (phantom bear) on January 1, when the Ezek platform and Jay Chou's famous fashion brand PHANTACi sold out.

As of press time, the floor price of PhantaBear NFT has risen to 6.35ETH, which is nearly 25 times higher than the issue price.

The popularity of celebrity effects has made the NFT market more prosperous, and celebrities in various fields have also entered the game one after another, or provide "soft platform" services, or use this to realize influence. Today Edison Chen also said that he will cooperate with Jay Chou to release a joint NFT project before the end of the year.

According to industry analysts, the current issuance of NFT is one of the ways to realize influence, but the liquidity of celebrity NFT depends on the enthusiasm and recognition of fans.

Entering the Metaverse for the first time, the data is dazzling

"The first special gift my brother received". On December 31, 2021, Jay Chou shared a post on his social account after receiving a phantom bear wearing a jersey with his birthday "18" as the back number.

This phantom bear with superimposed star eyes holds a basketball in his right hand and dunks in his left hand, which is in line with Jay Chou's image of basketball.

The price of NFTs supported by Jay Chou and Edison Chen has repeatedly hit new highs. Can celebrity NFTs invest for a long time?

After that, Hollywood action film actor Shange Winton also posted, "Received a PhantaBear NFT as a New Year's gift from good brother Jay Chou." On January 2, he changed his avatar to the NFT work, but Jean-Pierre has now changed back to his own photo.

In the following days, Chen Guanxi, Mayday Ashin, Xiu Jiekai and Lin Junjie, who had previously entered the metaverse with a high profile, also showed off their PhantaBear NFTs one after another.

This series of NFTs was officially sold at 11:00 on January 1st. Under the blessing of Jay Chou's halo, the purchase page was once stuck, but this did not affect the progress of the rush. According to information disclosed by the media, 3,000 units were sold within 5 minutes of the sale.

A person who purchased PhantaBear NFT with 0.73ETH told the reporter of "Blockchain Daily" that he did not buy it on January 1 due to network reasons. Unfortunately, he missed it and only started last Friday.

There were two waves of different opinions on the Phantom Bear NFT project on social media. Some people think that Jay Chou is the most important memory of a generation in music. When he is linked with NFT, the significance is self-evident.

Some people also say that this is a derivative product of Jay Chou's trendy brand, not an NFT of his own music history, "not even a collection value."

"Phanta Bear itself has its own recognition value, although it is not released by Jay Chou himself, his recognition can also attract a lot of attention." The above buyer told reporters, "Whether there is a collection value depends on whether there are more updates in the future. Multiple people willing to hold and trade.”

However, Jaywell Music, Jay Chou's affiliate, issued a statement on January 3, saying that NFT was not launched by Jay Chou himself, and stressed that he had not made any profits.

Although the company stated that it cut its relationship with the NFT project, Jay Chou continued to post the record of Phantabear NFT's third most popular transaction list on OpenSea on his social account on the 6th, and wrote: "Brother must be the first in everything. Even if they are brothers, but in the art world of the metaverse, I think the third one is okay."

The latest data shows that, ranked by transaction volume, floor price and other data, Phantabear NFT is the most popular series on OpenSea in the past 24 hours, with a transaction volume of 3830.58ETH.

The third is the NFT project "TheHeartProject" supported by Edison Chen, with a transaction volume of 3020.5ETH. It is reported that the cooperation project between TheHeartProject and Edison Chen will be released on February 1, and holders of TheHeartProject NFT can participate in priority.

In addition, Edison Chen said in the community today that he may cooperate with Jay Chou to release a joint NFT project before the end of the year.

The price of NFTs supported by Jay Chou and Edison Chen has repeatedly hit new highs. Can celebrity NFTs invest for a long time?

The NFT projects supported by Jay Chou and Edison Chen occupy the first and third place in OpenSea transaction volume respectively

Celebrity NFT = Influence Realization?

The "Phantom Bear" project is a collection of digital collectibles generated by 10,000 algorithms, and was jointly initiated by the trendy brand PHANTACi founded by Jay Chou and his friend Ric in 2006, and the decentralized entertainment platform Ezek.

PhantaBear is a representative of PHANTACi, and T-shirts made with this IP are also sold on the brand's official website.

In this series of NFTs, each PhantaBear uses clothing and accessories designed by PHANTACi. According to Ezek's official website, PhantaBear also doubles as a membership card, and owners can enjoy exclusive membership benefits.

Additionally, Ezek will launch a virtual concert in the second quarter of 2022, along with purchasing a virtual land and building a members-only clubhouse in the Metaverse. But the official website does not provide further explanation on this.

According to public information, the founder of Ezek's parent company, Starvision Entertainment Ltd. (S.E.L), is Liu Genghong, who has been in friendship with Jay Chou for many years.

A week after Ezek said on December 18, 2021 that it would cooperate with PHANTACi to release PhantaBear NFT, Ezek announced that it had completed the seed round of financing, but did not announce the specific value. This round of financing was participated by Highstreet Ventures, Everest Ventures Group, Bonfire Union, Y2Z Ventures, rct AI and others.

The reporter of "Blockchain Daily" found that Ezek's current round of financing was led by the Metaverse platform and investment institutions in the field of digital assets. The above-mentioned institutions involved in investing in Ezek have also invested in each other. For example, the artificial intelligence technology company rct AI completed its A3 round of financing of over 10 million US dollars in November 2021, and Bonfire Union was there.

Everest Ventures Group has been focusing on investment in the blockchain field since its establishment in 2018. It has invested in star projects such as Sandbox, Flow, and Kraken worldwide.

It is worth mentioning that Highstreet, a metaverse concept business company that participated in Ezek’s financing, received two rounds of financing in three months last year. It is reported that the company has built the Highstreet Metaverse, in which each item can be converted into NFT through smart contracts, which can then be traded.

Travis Wu, CEO of Highstreet, said at the time: "Stimulating consumption in the metaverse will continue to exist. In the virtual world, the tension of brands is infinite."

Comparing Ezek's official website's description of the platform's plans for 2022, it is literally similar to the development direction of Highstreet Metaverse, that is, integrating offline brands in the metaverse to form new business and entertainment methods. According to the official website, PhantaBear NFT owners will experience the new entertainment world of Ezek Metaverse in advance.

An industry insider commented on social media that the PhantaBearNFT project has attracted much attention, largely because of Jay Chou's star halo. At the same time, NFTs will bring a faster and more convenient channel for the realization of celebrity traffic.

Wang Bo, CEO of Nervina Labs, the Nervos ecological team, also made a similar point. In an interview with a reporter from "Blockchain Daily", he said that celebrities participating in the sale of NFTs is a very simple way to realize their influence at the moment, although the official has stated that this PhantaBear NFT has no direct connection with Jay Chou.

"The NFT of celebrities is a kind of social identity within a certain range. The essential reason for the popularity of an NFT series is that it is a manifestation of a person's influence." Wang Bo further explained, "If there is no such manifestation, or the influence is very strong Weak, then the value of this NFT will not be great.”