Justin Bieber Paid $1.3 Million for a Bored Ape NFT. It's Now Worth $12K

Pop music icon Justin Bieber purchased a Bored Ape NFT for 500 ETH, or around $1.3 million, in January 2022. The Bored Ape #3001, considered a common design in the collection, is now valued at approximately $12,000 as of 2026. This represents a 99% loss from the initial purchase price, reflecting the broader decline in NFT values over the past four years.

NFT trading volumes have seen a dramatic drop since the peak of the market in 2021. The collapse from $2.9 billion to $23.8 million by early 2025 marks a 93% decline. Major NFT marketplaces, including Nifty Gateway, Foundation, and MakersPlace, have shut down within days of each other in January 2026.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club's floor price reached as high as $429,000 in April 2022, shortly after Bieber's purchase. However, the market has since entered a prolonged downturn, with floor prices of rival collections like CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins also falling significantly.

Why Did This Happen?

The decline in NFT value is part of a broader market correction. Active traders in the NFT space dropped from 529,101 in 2022 to 19,575 by 2025. The average price for art NFTs also fell from $2,044 in 2021 to $475 in 2023.

Centralized storage systems have contributed to the fragility of the NFT market. A 2024 Pinata analysis revealed that 27% of top NFT collections store metadata on centralized servers. This has left some NFTs at risk of permanent loss if servers shut down.

What Are Analysts Watching Next?

The crypto market has undergone structural changes following regulatory developments. The market has split into three layers: regulated, unregulated, and shared infrastructure. Institutional capital now stays within the regulated zone, while speculative activity remains in the unregulated space.

Gemini is one example of a firm adapting to this new landscape. The crypto exchange is exiting operations in the UK, EU, and Australia while laying off 25% of its staff. The firm aims to focus on prediction markets and AI-driven efficiency gains.

Emerging projects are attempting to introduce new use cases for blockchain technology. Lunar Records Fund #1, for instance, is a tokenized real-world asset fund designed to revolutionize music royalties. The fund leverages blockchain for transparent royalty reporting and ownership provenance.

What Is the Path to Recovery?

The next bull market in crypto will depend on two key factors: a new killer use case and a supportive macroeconomic environment. Past bull runs were driven by innovations like DeFi in 2020, which transitioned from the unregulated to the regulated space.

Regulatory clarity has helped stabilize the market, but volatility remains high in the unregulated sector. A return to a broad-based market upswing is unlikely without significant macroeconomic improvements.

The NFT market has entered a new phase, and early adopters like Justin Bieber now serve as cautionary examples of the risks and volatility in the space.