The crypto scene has long since said goodbye to its dingy image - even if fraud and money laundering are still carried out in abundance with digital currencies.

A new trend, which like Bitcoin is based on blockchain technology, has been catapulted directly into the dazzling circle of superstars - so-called NFT.

The abbreviation stands for Non-Fungible Token.

Antonia Mannweiler

Editor in Business.

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Simply put, these are unique digitized assets.

While a 10-euro note is fungible – i.e. interchangeable with any other 10-euro note – the NFT are, to a certain extent, unique.

With the help of blockchain technology, property rights can be precisely clarified in the digital world and counterfeiting can be prevented.

A popular application of NFT is the art market.

Just last year, the digital artwork “Everydays – The First 5000 Days” was auctioned at Christie's for a record sum of 69 million dollars.

In the world of the rich and beautiful, some NFTs are also the entry ticket for particularly exclusive and elite clubs.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is one of them.

To become a member, interested parties must purchase NFT from Yuga Labs in the form of a digital monkey.

If you want to go to the exclusive parties organized by BAYC, for example, you have to prove that you own such an NFT monkey.

expensive pictures

The graphic comic chimpanzees, of which there are only 10,000, are individually designed and sometimes wear sunglasses, sometimes a blindfold.

Sotheby's auctioned off a Bored Ape last October for a whopping $3.4 million.

Many celebrities such as rapper Eminem, tennis star Serena Williams and singer Madonna are members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

Some stars had even replaced their profile pictures on social media with those of the cartoon monkey and further fueled the hype.

In most cases, interested parties pay in the cryptocurrency ether to purchase NFTs such as those from Yuga Labs.

The start-up Moonpay offers the possibility to buy such NFTs without purchasing ether.

Instead, Moonpay acquires the digital currencies necessary for the NFT purchase and then bills the user for the amount in roughly dollars.

So, via Moonpay, customers can pay for digitized artworks, music, or other NFTs with credit or debit cards, but also with Apple, Google, and Samsung Pay.

Crypto trading platforms such as Coinbase and the NFT marketplace Open Sea are already working with Moonpay, and there are also partnerships with more than 260 other companies.

According to their own statements, almost 10 million customers have processed almost 3 billion dollars in transactions via Moonpay.

The company advertises with the slogan: “Buying NFT was tough.

Until now.” On The Tonight Show, US talk show host Jimmy Fallon even called Moonpay the crypto version of Paypal.

He used it to buy his first NFT ever – a monkey, of course.

Moonpay worth $3.4 billion

The exclusivity and the hype also explain the increased investor interest.

The crypto start-up Moonpay raised 555 million dollars in a financing round at the end of last year and is currently valued at 3.4 billion dollars.

In a press release published on Wednesday, the company announced that nearly 16 percent of its earnings come from celebrities.

More than 60 celebrities, including musicians and actors, have invested $87 million in the start-up.

These included Justin Bieber and Gwyneth Paltrow, who are also members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

But Bruce Willis, Paris Hilton, Post Malone, Ashton Kutcher, Kate Hudson, Shawn Mendes and Steve Aoki have also contributed capital.

The long list of investors includes not only celebrities, but also large tech investors such as the venture capital companies Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management.