The world’s richest man has been a vocal opposer of non-fungible tokens. Has Elon Musk been trolling everyone this whole time as the owner of a large amount of popular NFTs or is he trolling us once again Wednesday morning by right-click saving?
What Happened: The Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO changed his Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) profile picture Wednesday morning to a collage of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. Musk tweeted of the change by poking fun at the definition of fungible.
I dunno … seems kinda fungible
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2022
An item that is fungible is easily interchangeable and able to be replaced. NFTs offer unique ownership of an item on the blockchain.
The new profile picture in question not only suggests that Elon Musk owns one Bored Ape, but rather was the mystery buyer of a lot of 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs via a Sotheby’s auction in September 2021. The profile picture used by Musk is a collage of the 101 Bored Apes that were featured in the auction.
A mystery buyer purchased a lot of 101 Bored Apes for $24.39 million, beating an expected range of $12 to $18 million. The final sale price broke down as an average of $241,500 per Bored Ape at the time. The average price for the Bored Apes translated to 68.3 Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) at the time, above the then floor price of 40.75 ETH.
The lot contained several rare Bored Apes, including #5809 and #7440, which rank as the 21st and 52nd rarest Bored Apes in the collection of 10,000 NFTs.
“What a historic moment for the club: the Sotheby’s auction of 101 Bored Apes has closed at over $24 million. Congratulations and THANK YOU to the whole ape community,” Sotheby’s tweeted.
Related Link: Here's How Much 101 Bored Apes Just Sold For At Sotheby's Auction
Does Elon Musk Own A Bored Ape?: Speculation rose in February that Elon Musk could be the latest celebrity to join the Bored Ape Yacht Club community thanks to a picture with the co-founder of MoonPay, a company that has helped on-board many celebrities to the NFT space.
The picture came from a listening party for Kanye West’s new album and did not appear to be planned between the two parties.
“The picture is real. Don’t have additional details to share at the moment. But stay tuned to the website for exciting news to come,” a MoonPay spokesperson told Benzinga at the time.
Musk has previously voiced opposition to NFTs on several occasions, comparing NFTs to possible hallucinations and criticizing Twitter for prioritizing verified NFT profile pictures.
“Twitter is spending engineering resources on this bs while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread!?” Musk tweeted of Twitter’s NFT verification.
Musk also told Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) co-founder Billy Markus that “NFTs are jpeging the dollar” back in December.
Unless Musk confirms he is the owner of the Bored Ape collection sold at the Sotheby’s auction, chances are he is trolling the world once again and has also performed a “right click save,” by sharing a picture of an NFT he doesn’t own.
NFT artist Gary Vee, who created VeeFriends, shared his thoughts on Musk's profile picture Wednesday on CNBC.
"I'm not sure, I think Elon's got his finger on the pulse. I can take a picture in front of a Lamborghini outside, doesn't mean I own it," Vee said criticizing the argument that you can simply share a picture of an NFT.
Sotheby’s Co-Head of Digital Art Michael Bouhanna suggested that Musk remove the picture that he created for the auction or credit him.
@elonmusk as much I admire your work I'd like you to remove your pfp that I created for our Sotheby's sale. Or you credit me. Happy to send you the original file minted with the buyer approval pic.twitter.com/e83ZyxWGH5
— Michael Bouhanna (@michaelbouhanna) May 4, 2022
Price Action: The profile picture change by Musk led to a sharp volume increase in Bored Ape transactions Wednesday morning. At the time of writing, 22 Apes had sold in the last hour and 40 in the last two hours, a high volume for an NFT collection with a high price tag.
The floor price for Bored Ape Yacht Club is 120 ETH at the time of writing, or $345,145.
ApeCoin (CRYPTO: APE), a token supported by Bored Ape parent Yuga Labs, was up 4% to $15.86 early Wednesday morning.
Coincidentally, the buyer of the Sotheby’s auction would have been able to claim 10,094 APE for each of the 101 Bored Apes, which would be worth over $16 million Wednesday.
Photo: Created with an image from Steve Jurvetson on Flickr
