Celebrity NFT Portfolios Lose Millions as Bored Ape Floor Crashes 99% From Peak

The great NFT reckoning has arrived with a vengeance in February 2026, and nowhere is the damage more visible than in the portfolios of celebrities who bought into the digital collectibles boom at its peak. As the broader cryptocurrency market endures one of its sharpest weekly declines in recent memory, high-profile NFT holders are watching their multi-million-dollar investments evaporate, with some assets losing 99% or more of their purchase value.

TL;DR

• Justin Bieber’s Bored Ape NFT drops 99% from $1.3 million purchase price to approximately $12,000
• Celebrity collectors including Logan Paul and Neymar face steep losses on their NFT holdings
• Bored Ape Yacht Club floor price falls to 9.5 ETH (~$21,000) amid the crypto market crash
• NFT market cap retreats below $1.5 billion, returning to pre-2021 boom levels
• Ethereum NFT market shows resilience with $200 million in monthly sales despite the downturn

The Celebrity NFT Bust

The numbers are staggering in their scale. Justin Bieber, who purchased Bored Ape Yacht Club #3001 for approximately $1.3 million in January 2022, now holds an asset worth roughly $12,000 according to current market prices. That represents a loss of more than 99% on the original investment, making it one of the most dramatic value destructions in the history of digital collectibles. Bieber is far from alone in his predicament.

Logan Paul, the YouTube personality turned boxer and entrepreneur, has also seen his NFT portfolio suffer catastrophic losses. Paul was among the most vocal celebrity advocates for NFTs during the 2021-2022 boom, frequently showcasing his digital art purchases to millions of followers. The subsequent collapse in valuations has transformed those once-celebrated acquisitions into cautionary tales about the risks of speculative investing at market peaks.

Brazilian football star Neymar, who made headlines when he purchased two Bored Ape NFTs for a combined total exceeding $500,000, has likewise watched those holdings plummet in value. The Brazilian striker’s foray into digital collectibles was part of a broader wave of athlete and celebrity endorsements that helped propel the NFT market to unsustainable heights during the boom period.

Bored Ape Yacht Club Faces Reckoning

The Bored Ape Yacht Club, once the undisputed king of the NFT world with all-time trading volume exceeding $6.2 billion, has seen its floor price decline to approximately 9.5 ETH, or roughly $21,692 at current Ethereum prices. While this still represents significant value compared to many other collections, the decline from peak floor prices above 150 ETH has been devastating for holders who bought near the top.

The collection’s decline reflects broader dynamics at play in the NFT market. The initial wave of enthusiasm that drove Bored Ape prices to extraordinary heights was fueled by a combination of celebrity endorsements, social media hype, and speculative mania. As each of those pillars has weakened, prices have retreated to levels that more accurately reflect the underlying demand from genuine collectors and community members rather than speculators.

Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, has been working to expand the utility of its NFT ecosystem through various initiatives including the Otherside metaverse project. However, progress has been slower than many holders expected, and the broader market downturn has overwhelmed any positive momentum from these efforts. The company faces the challenge of maintaining community engagement during an extended bear market that has tested even the most committed holders.

Market Structure Changes Favor Professional Traders

The current NFT market looks fundamentally different from the one that attracted celebrities and casual collectors during the boom. Blur, the professional-oriented NFT marketplace, now commands approximately 38% of all Ethereum NFT trading volume, reflecting a market dominated by sophisticated traders rather than enthusiastic newcomers. This shift has important implications for price discovery and market dynamics.

Professional traders tend to be more price-sensitive and less emotionally attached to specific collections, contributing to faster price adjustments when market conditions change. The result has been increased volatility and more efficient pricing, but also a less welcoming environment for casual participants who may not have the tools or expertise to compete with algorithmic trading strategies and professional market makers.

OpenSea, which processed $4.2 billion in cumulative volume during Q4 2025, continues to serve a broader audience but has lost significant market share to Blur among active traders. Meanwhile, Magic Eden maintains its position as the leading platform for Solana and Bitcoin Ordinals trading, though activity on these chains has also declined sharply in line with broader market trends.

Ethereum vs. Bitcoin: A Tale of Two NFT Markets

The divergence between Bitcoin and Ethereum NFT markets has become one of the defining narratives of the current downturn. While Bitcoin NFT sales collapsed to just $24.4 million in February 2026, the lowest since March 2023, Ethereum-based NFT sales actually rebounded above $200 million, reaching the highest monthly total since November 2025.

This contrast speaks to the fundamental differences in ecosystem maturity between the two chains. Ethereum’s NFT marketplace infrastructure has had years to develop, with deep liquidity pools, established collections with proven track records, and a collector base that has weathered multiple market cycles. Bitcoin’s Ordinals ecosystem, by comparison, is still finding its footing and lacks the same depth of infrastructure and community.

CryptoPunks, the legendary Ethereum NFT collection, has demonstrated remarkable resilience, with floor prices actually rising more than 19% to nearly 31 ETH (approximately $70,000) even as the broader market sold off. This performance suggests that the most culturally significant and historically important NFT collections retain genuine value that transcends market cycles, while newer and less established projects are more vulnerable to dramatic drawdowns.

Looking Ahead: Lessons From the Celebrity NFT Bust

The celebrity NFT bust offers several important lessons for the broader market. First, it demonstrates that celebrity endorsements and social media hype are not reliable indicators of long-term value. The same star power that helped inflate NFT prices during the boom has provided no protection against the inevitable correction.

Second, the divergence between blue-chip collections like CryptoPunks and newer entrants suggests that the NFT market is maturing and beginning to differentiate between assets based on genuine cultural significance and mere speculative momentum. This differentiation is likely to accelerate as the market continues to evolve.

Third, the current downturn may ultimately prove healthy for the NFT ecosystem by washing out speculative excess and leaving behind a more sustainable foundation of genuine collectors and builders. The projects that survive this period will be those that deliver real utility and maintain engaged communities, rather than relying on hype cycles and celebrity partnerships to drive demand.

Why This Matters

The collapse of celebrity NFT portfolios is more than just schadenfreude-inducing headline material. It represents the final stage of the speculative cycle that began in 2021, when seemingly everyone with a public platform was buying and promoting digital collectibles. The resolution of this cycle marks an important transition point for the NFT market, from a hype-driven phenomenon to a more mature ecosystem where value is determined by genuine utility, cultural significance, and sustainable demand.

For the broader cryptocurrency market, the NFT downturn serves as a microcosm of the leverage and speculation that pervades the entire digital asset space. The $520 billion that was wiped from the crypto market’s capitalization during the week of February 9-16, 2026, reflects many of the same dynamics that drove the NFT bust: excessive leverage, momentum-driven buying, and a lack of fundamental support for inflated valuations.

As the market eventually finds its footing, the lessons of this period will shape how both institutional and retail participants approach digital assets. The survivors of this correction, whether they are NFT collections, blockchain protocols, or individual investors, will be those who focused on fundamentals rather than following the crowd.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency and NFT investments carry significant risk, including the potential for total loss. Readers should conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.