Editor’s note: The original November 2022 version of this article was lost. The Lee Daily Register rebuilt it in October 2026 from the sources cited below, and added what happened afterward. The original version said Bored Ape sales fell 135% on one day; the data it relied on showed sales rose 135%. It also said a similar ape cost about one-ninth of Bieber’s price in dollars. The reported figure was about one-ninth in ether and about one-nineteenth in dollars.
Justin Bieber paid 500 ether, worth about $1.3 million at the time, for a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT in January. Ten months later, an ape with similarly ordinary traits can be bought for a small fraction of that.
As of Wednesday, the floor price of the collection, meaning the cheapest Bored Ape listed for sale, was about 58.2 ETH, or roughly $69,800, according to NFT Price Floor data cited by Decrypt. The floor dipped below $60,000 on Monday and touched 48 ETH on Tuesday morning before recovering.
A common ape at a celebrity price
Bieber’s NFT is Bored Ape #3001, CNBC reported. Rarity Tools ranks it 9,810th out of the collection’s 10,000 apes based on its traits, which means it would probably trade near the floor if it were not linked to a famous owner, Decrypt noted.
Collectors questioned the purchase as soon as it happened. The NFT collector known as gmoney posted on Jan. 29 that Bieber had “just bought a floor ape for 500 ETH,” and Rug Radio co-founder Farokh Sarmad publicly asked who was advising the singer on NFTs, according to Decrypt.
How far Bored Ape prices have fallen
The collection’s floor peaked at about 152 ETH, or roughly $429,000, in late April. Excitement over land sales for Otherside, a metaverse game from Bored Ape creator Yuga Labs, drove that run. Ape holders had also just cashed in on the March launch of ApeCoin.
Since then, the broader crypto crash has drained much of the speculation from NFTs. Measured in dollars, the entry price for a Bored Ape is now about 84% below the April peak. November alone has cut the dollar floor price by 33%. Decrypt linked part of that drop to the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX the previous week, which pushed down crypto prices across the market.
Other collections have held up better. The floor for CryptoPunks, another Yuga Labs project, was about 66.5 ETH, roughly $79,800, down 23% in dollar terms this month but nearly unchanged in ether.
The lower prices appear to be drawing buyers. About $6.5 million worth of Bored Apes changed hands on Tuesday, a 135% jump from the previous day, according to CryptoSlam data cited by Decrypt.
A floor price is the lowest current listing, not an appraisal of a specific NFT. Any loss on Bieber’s ape exists only on paper unless he sells it.
What happened next
In December 2022, buyers of Yuga Labs products filed a proposed class action in federal court in California naming 37 defendants, including Bieber, Madonna, Steph Curry and Paris Hilton. The suit accused the company, talent manager Guy Oseary and payments firm MoonPay of arranging celebrity promotions without disclosing financial ties. Yuga Labs denied the claims and called them opportunistic, Decrypt reported.
On Oct. 2, 2025, U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin ruled that the NFTs and ApeCoin did not meet the legal test for securities, so the defendants did not have to face the securities suit. He allowed the buyers to file an amended complaint, Bloomberg Law reported.
Prices kept falling. By July 2023, Bieber’s ape was worth about $59,000, according to Bitcoinist figures cited by CNBC. In February 2026, Decrypt put its value at less than 6 ETH, around $12,000. The outlet noted that the ape’s link to Bieber could help it sell above the floor if he ever listed it.
