Elon Musk Bought Bored Ape For 569 ETH

Elon Musk Bored Ape

Welcome back to the Tribe! In this post we dive into the recent news that Elon Musk has joined the bored ape family!

Nothing should be considered investment or financial advice. Enjoy the ride!

Elon Musk Bored Ape

Elon Musk could be the latest member of the Bored Ape Yacht Club following a massive $1.5 million-plus acquisition of Ape #1837 via payment service provider MoonPay. Musk is yet to confirm the news but a tweet from a collector suggests that the SpaceX CEO could indeed be the buyer.

Did Elon Musk Just Buy a BAYC NFT for Almost 600 ETH?

Following a post from the official BAYC Twitter sales bot, an NFT collector called Deepak.eth has suggested that Elon Musk purchased his rare golden ape for a whooping 569 ETH. Currently, that places the fee at around $1.52 million for Ape #1837.

I thought I had it at 690.420 ETH. Oh well..as long as it goes to @ElonMusk I’ll be happy. CC: @moonpay https://t.co/M5IwL0z4SG

— Deepak.eth ⛓ (@dt_chain) February 25, 2022

According to Deepak’s tweet, Elon supposedly leveraged the fiat on-ramp payment service MoonPay to buy the NFT. Since the quoted tweet, several Twitter users have referenced a photo of Musk allegedly meeting with members of the MoonPay team. The Tesla boss has neither denied nor confirmed the news as of the time of writing this report.

However, other users have pointed out that the Tesla CEO isn’t a big fan of NFTs. Elon Musk repeatedly rebuffed Twitter for not addressing NFT scammers posting shady information and links under his tweet.

Musk also shared his thought regarding Twitter’s latest NFT profile photo integration for Twitter Blue users, tagging the move as a waste of resources.

Regardless of Elon’s sentiment towards NFTs, the BAYC collection continues to garner attention from both crypto proponents and mainstream celebrities since launching over 11 months ago. Besides being one of the top-ranked collections on the leading NFT marketplace OpenSea, a number of pop culture a-listers have joined the exclusive BAYC community.

Popular rappers Lil Baby, Post Malone and Lil Yatchy all own pieces from the tokenized ape collection. Sports stars like NBA star Steph Curry and American TV host Jimmy Fallon also reportedly own Bored Ape NFTs.

Back in January 2022, singer and songwriter Justin Beiber bought an Ape for 500 ETH, a staggering $1.29 million at the time.

The NFT industry also kicked off 2022 with a bang as OpenSea raised $300 million in a Series C funding round. OpenSea’s market valuation soared to $13.3 billion following the hefty raise and the marketplace recorded a massive $2 billion in trading volume earlier in January.

Unrelated news: UK Authorities Move to Give Crypto Tracking Power to Courts

City AM reported that officials in the British government have announced plans to implement improved policies geared towards combating cryptocurrency fraud. Sir Geoffrey Vos, a senior Judge in the UK, said a sub-committee tasked with drafting civil court laws is currently working on a proposal for consideration.

Vos commented that complex laws have prevented courts from tracing illicit funds obtains from crypto-related crimes. The lawmaker likened the emergence of blockchain technology to the rise of the internet. Vos opined authorities must adapt to the changing financial landscape if they hope to protect consumers from criminals.

“The internet was unstoppable in 1995 and blockchain technology is unstoppable now. It will become ubiquitous in all major industrial and financial sectors, simply because it allows for the immutable recording of data, thereby reducing friction in commercial and consumer transactions and obliterating the scope for dispute as to what has occurred.”

Vos disclosed that part of the proposed laws could give courts the mandate to order crypto exchanges, companies and platforms to provide personal information pertaining to suspects in possible crypto fraud cases.

The move comes as authorities in the UK move towards introducing contemporary laws to keep up with decentralized finance and the crypto industry in general.