Madonna Becomes Latest Celeb Aboard Bored Ape

Metaverse, meet Madonna.

The pop legend announced on social media late Thursday (March 24) that she had purchased a non-fungible token (NFT) from the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection.

I finally entered the MetaVerse…,……….. My very own Ape! Thanks @moonpay We all need protection from Evil Eye. pic.twitter.com/We5p9iy4hS

— Madonna (@Madonna) March 25, 2022

With the acquisition — valued at more than $500,000 Friday afternoon — Madonna becomes the latest celebrity to plant their flag in NFT land, joining stars such as Eminem, Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber, Bloomberg reported.

“I finally entered the metaverse,” Madonna wrote on Instagram and Twitter (where she changed her avatar to an image of the cartoon ape). “My very own Ape!”

The singer also thanked Moonpay, a cryptocurrency firm that lets people purchase NFTs, saying “We all need protection from Evil Eye.”

Moonpay launched its NFT Checkout product earlier this year, allowing customers to buy NFTs with a wealth of services, including debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and ACH transfers. Typically, these customers would have had to load a blockchain wallet with cryptocurrency to make purchases.

Read more: Crypto FinTech MoonPay Launches Credit, Debit Checkout Tool for NFTs

The Madonna news comes days after reports that Yuga Labs, creator of the Bored Apes, raised $450 million in a funding round that valued the firm at $4 billion, per Bloomberg.

The funding is part of BAYC’s plan to create a metaverse, with Yuga seeking a $5 billion valuation on the premise that it can raise $455 million this year, primarily from sales of “land” plots in a gaming-focused virtual reality known as MetaRPG.

See more: Bored Apes Yacht Club Creator Yuga Labs Raises $450M at $4B Valuation

Last week, Universal Music Group’s (UMG) next-generation label 10:22PM, a Web3 brand that discovers and develops artists, announced it had purchased Bored Ape #5537 for an undisclosed amount.

Read more: UMG’s 10:22PM Buys Bored Ape #5537, Debuts KINGSHIP Website

The Web3 movement aims to overhaul the internet and move online services to decentralized technologies like the blockchain.