A TEENAGE artist became a millionaire when he rode the NFT wave at its peak.
The teen posted an NFT collection online and was met with shocking enthusiasm from buyers.
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The COVID-19 lockdown led to the discovery of scores of hobbies – baking, musical instruments, computer programming – it’s one of the few positives that came from the strange and dystopian times.
For 16-year-old Jaiden Stipp, known as Jasti on socials, it gave him the opportunity to become fluent in digital artistry programs like Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects.
After clicking around, Stipp minted an NFT he created and posted it online.
“Honestly, I didn’t think it would sell for much,” he told Business Insider. “I thought it would be a one-time thing… Somebody might make an offer on it, maybe in a blue moon.”
Quickly, another user offered Stipp .09 Ethereum tokens for his first piece – an offer of almost $200 in US currency.
Stipp and one bidder negotiated until settling on 20ETH – over $30,000 based on Ethereum’s value at the time – for the piece.
His next piece sold for another 20ETH – and so began a digital artistry career.
“If I’m going to be honest, I have no idea how people found it or why people started offering on it, but it just happened,” Stipp said. “And then here we are now.”
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Stipp posted his NFTs to the trading platform SuperRare – the site deals exclusively in Ethereum, a cryptocurrency with lasting power above fabled meme-tokens like Shibacoin and Dogecoin.
To date, Stipp has sold 438 pieces and the total value of his work sits at 411ETH, or just under $1million dollars.
While NFTs are adored by all – Kanye West chided them as useless – there is a market of committed buyers for them.
NFTs power the metaverse – many meta-events require the purchase of an NFT for entry.
Some companies are investing heavily or even hinging their future on the metaverse and the world of digital assets.
Mark Zuckerberg, as CEO of Meta, once said “Our overarching goal across all of these initiatives is to help bring the metaverse to life.”
NFT sales are down 92% since September 2021 – a dark sign for Meta’s $10billion dollar bet on the metaverse.
But for individual artists like Stipp, NFTs opened a door into a new life and career as an artist.
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