NFT
MoonPay, a $3.4 billion crypto startup backed by a host of Hollywood heavyweights, gifted celebrities with valuable NFTs at the height of the crypto craze in late 2021, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
For more than a year, observers have speculated that at least some of the many celebrities MoonPay helped acquire Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs got the digital collectibles in exchange for promoting the company and the valuable non-fungible token collection. Now, two people familiar with the matter told The Block that MoonPay has given at least some celebrities Bored Ape NFTs without expecting payment.
MoonPay denies giving celebrities free to Bored Apes. A spokesperson for MoonPay said the crypto firm was charging its celebrity clients “full price of the NFTs” and that clients pay for the service. Another spokesperson declined to comment on exactly when invoices were sent and whether all MoonPay customers paid their bills.
Celebrity boosters
The list of celebrities who bragged after scoring Bored Apes via MoonPay is as long as it is illustrious and includes pop stars Justin Bieber and Madonna, nighttime host Jimmy Fallon, Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and celebrity debutante Paris Hilton. Ccelebrities generally praised MoonPay’s services — the company eventually created a VIP concierge service for high net worth individuals — after receiving their Bored Apes, boosting the startup’s profile.
Bored Apes are arguably the gold standard of NFT collections. Why and how so many stars in entertainment and professional sports came to own the NFTs in such rapid succession was already one subject of intense speculation. A class action lawsuit filed in late 2022 alleged that celebrities promoted Bored Apes and MoonPay on social media and television without disclosing their financial interests in the companies or receiving compensation.
Prosecutors also accuse the celebrities of conspiring with Yuga Labs, the maker of MoonPay and Bored Apes, to inflate the value of the NFTs. MoonPay is an investor in Yuga Labs.
Attorneys filed the class action lawsuit last December in U.S. District Court in California. In addition to naming Bieber, Madonna, Fallon, Paltrow and Hilton, actor Kevin Hart and star athletes Serena Williams and Stephen Curry are also said to have participated in the promotion plan. In early 2022, MoonPay said in a Twitter post that Hart had joined the Bored Ape community.
The lawsuit is currently awaiting a procedural ruling before proceeding.
Jimmy Fallon’s Twitter post announcing he purchased a Bored APE NFT.
When the three major Hollywood talent agencies, CAA, WME and UTA, were asked if their clients had received Bored Apes in exchange for promoting the NFTs and MoonPay, CAA declined to comment. WME and UTA did not respond to requests for comment. The three agencies collectively represent nearly all of the celebrities named in the lawsuit as well as those who received their Bored Apes through MoonPay.
High profile investors
Months before news of the lawsuit broke, MoonPay announced that dozens of “high-profile” investors had collectively invested $87 million in the company. That list included Bieber, Hilton, and Paltrow. Snoop Dogg, Diplo and Post Malone were also on MoonPay’s list of “music, sports and entertainment VIPs”, all of whom were also named in the class action lawsuit alleging that MoonPay was the “front” in a “plan to use celebrities. to hype Bored Apes and the crypto platform founded by CEO Ivan Soto-Wright in 2018.
According to court documents, Snoop Dogg is an investor in both MoonPay and Yuga Labs.
Soto Wright told The Block in March 2022 that his company’s A-list clients had approached the company “independently” wanting to buy NFTs. In another conversationSoto-Wright also said that customers are always billed and paid for the digital assets they receive through MoonPay.
MoonPay’s celebrity investors who donated $87 million to the company were part of the company’s largest capital injection, a $555 million Series A funding round. Tiger Global Management and Coatue led the round, earning MoonPay its $3.4 billion valuation. Notably, less than a month later, Soto-Wright purchased a $38 million mansion in Miami.
MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright speaking at the NFT NYC event in June 2022.
Last month, The Information reported that $150 million of the $555 million raised went to Soto-Wright and other MoonPay executives, meaning the company only received $405 million in fresh capital. Since that funding round, MoonPay has not raised any more funds.
The NFT Broker
To some extent, the saga surrounding MoonPay’s actions began in November 2021 when Fallon flaunted a bored monkey dressed in a captain’s hat and heart-shaped sunglasses while hosting the long-running TV show “The Tonight Show.” He happily stated that he scored the NFT using MoonPay’s service.
A few weeks after Fallon quietly talked his Bored Ape out of MoonPay set up a concierge service to help celebrities and the super rich buy NFTs without the hassle of setting up a crypto wallet. A MoonPay spokesperson told The Block at the time that there was no commercial relationship between the company and Fallon.
A series of similar incidents involving Bored Apes followed and MoonPay quickly built up a glittering customer list that included stars like Madonna, Snoop Dogg, DJ Khaled, Bieber and Hilton. Later in 2022, MoonPay revealed that Snoop Dogg, Bieber, and Hilton had it all invested in the company.
But in the 18 or so months since the Fallon segment, many have been skeptical about how MoonPay emerged from relative obscurity and became the apparent NFT broker of choice for the rich and famous almost overnight.
About a year ago, a Youtuber named Coffeezilla, who has nearly 3 million followers, posted his own research on how much MoonPay probably paid to score time in a music video by Post Malone in which he buys a Bored Ape. The video has been viewed almost 300,000 times.
MoonPay class action lawsuit
In the aforementioned class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that Guy Oseary, a veteran talent agent, who at one point managed Madonna, hatched a plan with Yuga Labs and MoonPay to promote Bored Apes. Through his venture capital firm Sound Ventures, which he co-founded with actor Ashton Kutcher, Oseary has invested in both MoonPay and Yuga Labs.
Sound Ventures and Oseary did not respond to requests for comment.
While the lawsuit alleges that Oseary used MoonPay to “obscure” how celebrities in the alleged scheme were paid, it does not provide details about how the transactions were conducted, nor who ultimately paid for the NFTs.
Earlier this year CNN reported that that “several former MoonPay employees … were skeptical” that celebrities had paid for their Bored Apes “because there was no evidence on the blockchain.”
In the wake of blockchain transactions, at least one internet sleuth has pointed to records and publicly available information on Bieber suggesting the pop star may not have spent his own money buying a Bored Ape for $1.3 million, which was a whopping four times the asking price at the time .
