BeInCrypto takes a look once again at the top five people making waves in the crypto market. This week’s crypto influencers center around non-fungible tokens. The influencers include ever-present Elon Musk, rapper Lil Pump, and anti-bitcoiner Peter Schiff. 

The surge in popularity towards NFTs has been nothing short of phenomenal. The rise of an industry that has taken years to get off the ground has finally begun. This week features several influencers who bought or sold NFTs, starting off with Lil Pump.

Lil Pump

The young rapper features for his contribution to the NFT space. No surprise that the 20 year old rapper made his move into the space, following the success of musicians in the space the past few weeks. 

Gazzy Garcia, aka Lil Pump, rolled out his very own NFT collection this month. The collection of NFTs was dropped on the Sweet platform. It may appear that Lil Pump is late to the party, but the artist has been accepting bitcoin (BTC) on his online store since 2019. So there is no surprise that when the NFT craze kicked off, Lil Pump would eventually be involved. 

The artist has over 3.8 billion audio and video streams. He is also well recognized for his five-time platinum single “Gucci Gang.” The collection of NFTs ranges in price from $10 up to $10,000. 

Lil Pump becomes one of many musicians that have now made their way into offering NFTs. 

Beeple

It comes as no surprise that digital artist and NFT legend Beeple features, following a dramatic week that saw Beeple, aka Mike Winkelmann, sell the world’s most expensive NFT.

Beeple who had previously created digital art on social media platforms, was an early adopter into the NFT space as an artist. His work has proven to be hitting cult status, following the success of his NFT sales in recent months.

Beeple has amassed more money and records than anyone else in the space. He also now holds the title of having the most expensive NFT in history. And that is unlikely to change anytime soon. 

His “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” sold for 42,329.45 ether (ETH) at Christie’s auction house. The sale became worldwide news as NFT mania continues to grip the world. Therefore, the NFT legend features this week, having had an amazing week with the impressive sale and exposure. 

This person has come out as the buyer of Beeple’s $69 million action piece. The pseudonym MetaKovan was revealed as the winner of Beeple’s Christie’s auction. 

The proof was later confirmed as Beeple created a digital art piece for MetaKovan, following the auction closing. 

In the press release, MetaKovan, aka Vignesh Sundaresan, explained that they wanted to show their pride:

“The point was to show Indians and people of color that they too could be patrons, that crypto was an equalizing power between the West and the Rest, and that the global south was rising.”

Elon Musk

No surprise that Elon Musk features once again. The Tesla founder and billionaire features this week due to his participation in, you guessed it, NFTs. 

Musk jumped on the NFT bandwagon, following in his partner’s footsteps. Musk’s girlfriend Grimes recently sold over $6 million in NFTs. However, Musk released his very own NFT just for fun. Musk stated, “I’m selling this song about NFTs as an NFT.”

The NFT had in fact reach over $1 million before Musk decided to retract the sale of it. 

The participation of Musk in the NFT space simply adds more fuel to an already very popular fire.

Spencer Schiff

Spencer Schiff, the son of gold maximalist Peter Schiff has clearly made up his mind about the debate over gold versus bitcoin. 

Peter Schiff took to twitter to express his dissatisfaction towards his son. Spencer had apparently gone 100% into bitcoin, leaving Peter dumbfounded by the decision. 

It’s become evident that father and son do not share the same values as Spencer has clearly become a bitcoin maximalist. Furthermore, Spencer has even stepped into the NFT space with the recent sale of one of his tweets as an NFT.

While Spencer may be capitalizing on the NFT craze, Peter Schiff took off the gloves saying, “A complete waste of time.”

The NFT space has clearly gripped everyone and the growth of the industry is skyrocketing, from music artists selling off their artwork to sports implementing NFTs and creating fan tokens. There is no end in sight for how popular and how widespread in adoption the trend can go. However, what is certain is that it’s here to stay, for now at least.