- Led Wayline
Jay Chou Claims Zero Involvement with Top-Charting PhantaBear NFT
Taiwanese superstar singer-songwriter, Jay Chou, is not – in any way – working on the all-new hot-selling digital collection that recently gave the Bored Apes set a handy beating in terms of trading volume.
This all-new non-fungible token (NFT) digital art collection is a collaboration between Ezek.io, an NFT platform and PHANTACi, the Taiwanese fashion brand that Chou founded.
The clarification came from both Ezek.io, the platform that worked on and released the PhantaBear line and Chou’s record label – JVR Music. In fact, the latter had released the statement first and, according to Yahoo! News, Mark Geng, Co-Founder, Ezek.io, responded with the following: “(We) respect JVR’s statement and thank everybody for affirming the value of PhantaBear.”
Interestingly, 10,000 pieces of the star-shaped sunglasses-wearing and very fashionable digital bear were sold in less than 40 minutes after it launched on OpenSea on 1 January 2022. Besides quickly gaining worldwide attention and selling out at launch, its biggest achievements to-date include tripling its trade value since launch.
According to the last week’s 7-Days stats from DappRadar, PhantaBear generated 2,887 sales and US$51.46 million in trade volume. This is based on 3,077 trades making sales that week. In comparison, Bored Apes Yacht Club – as per its trading name on DappRadar – racked up only US$44.82 million in trade volume, sold with 240 traders and scored 148 sales.
The stylish bear NFT set brought in some much-needed bullish calm to this volatile marketplace. A big chunk of this positive charm and fast growth comes from the proactive engagements and the cascading effect that PhantaBear received from its primary endorser.
Beyond the blockchain, DappRadar also shared how Ezek.io have plans to expand PhantaBear outside of the digital realm. One of the confirmed ideas is to feature some of the clothes these digital bear tokens are wearing in the upcoming Phantaci Spring 2022 Collection.
Even if he isn’t part of the development team or working on the platform, Chou keenly knows how his endorsement for PhantaBear is instrumental and plays it up to a tee. Besides sharing on all his social media feeds what his own PhantaBear looks like, which is all set to play basketball and rocking a Number 18 jersey – a reference to his birthday that falls on 18 January, he also posts about how well PhantaBear is performing on OpenSea.
Being linked to Chou did give PhantaBear a lot of leverage as it regularly appears in mainstream news. Just recently, the bear NFT made headlines when a random stranger gifted a PhantaBear to Tony Fernandez, Group CEO, AirAsia Group. Press titles got wind of it when Fernandez shared about it on his Instagram page.
Endorsing the PhantaBear NFT is not Chou’s first foray into next-gen digital innovation. In 2016, he bought up the League of Legends (LoL) gaming team – Taipei Assassins, and renamed it to JTeam. His keen interest in the popular mobile battle arena spurred him to heavily invest in the team. Besides making tunes and arranging a surprise live-stage appearance for LoL Worlds, he also expanded the JTeam to compete in other games, such as the newly announced Peacekeeper Elite League 2022 Series for PlayersUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile.
The latest on Chou’s esports venture is the recent exhibition match in August 2021 where he played against fellow Mando-pop star, Karry Wang. Both of them were teamed up with retired Chinese professional LoL players.
Will NFT and blockchain-powered art be a big deal for 2022? While there are many parties gaming the system to earn a quick buck, just as many are looking to make this a legit business for artists and creatives of all kinds. Let's hope the latter two will win out in the long game.