Crypto-art is currently beyond big business as the non-fungible token trading craze continues. The latest high-profile celebrity to get in on the bubble before it bursts is Ja Rule, who bragged of recently selling a painting of the Fyre Festival logo for over $120,000 on the Flipkick market. It was painted by Tripp Derrick Barnes for the company’s New York office but Ja kept it after the disastrous festival weekend.
Goodnight… pic.twitter.com/2xOXcjJ37L
— Ja Rule (@jarule) March 24, 2021
Although Fyre Festival creator Billy McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud, investor Ja Rule was cleared of similar charges after a judge determined he didn’t know about the behind-the-scenes logistical failures that turned the luxury festival into a documentary-worthy fiasco. In an interview with Forbes about selling the painting, Ja explained that he really wanted to get rid of the painting because he felt it brought him “bad luck.” Initially commissioning the painting for just $2,000, he originally thought about selling it on eBay but a friend convinced him to get in on the NFT trend.
And while $120,000 seems like a tremendous profit on the $2,000 painting, it’s a big step down from his original asking price of $600,000. I guess people weren’t willing to go in that deeply on something Ja Rule’s selling.