The Eternal Collection: Is it Fame or Art?
Celebrity-driven NFTs have suffered a harsh criticism following the countless number of rug pulls and cash grabs that have been created by popular influencers and social figures. It caused the reputation and general opinion of NFTs to take a major hit because many of the worst NFT collections received the biggest spotlights due to their connection to famous people.
A year later, following a rough summer of crashing crypto prices, it appears that many celebrities have abandoned the NFT craze, leaving it to only a small number of celebrities still interested in the technology including Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Seth Green, and most recently Anthony Hopkins.
The Eternal Collection
The Eternal Collection, created by Anthony Hopkins and the Orange Comet team, had a successful mint in mid-October which has seen the price rise from .3 Eth to as high as .9 Eth. The collection is a series of art that takes inspiration from Anthony Hopkins’ body of work which spans multiple decades.
The art is separated into different archetype categories including the Giver, the Ruler, and the Explorer to name a few. These archetypes are meant to represent the different characters within a story and a larger interpretation of the creative process itself.
The collection also features a valuable pass into a IRL meet-up with significant people working in Hollywood which has the capability of leading to some valuable networking possibilities for artists.
Criticism against celebrity NFT collections
There is a big caveat to all of this though. NFTs endorsed and led by celebrities are routinely some of the worst collections available on Ethereum, with an even lower reputation than most rug pulls and derivatives.
In the original NFT bull run, celebrities including Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul were some of the worst projects. Holders lost significant amounts of liquidity as the collections’ value quickly dropped to zero.
The response to this outcome was not surprising - no one wanted to partake in any NFTs created by celebrities because of the heightened risks.
Celebrities vs Artists
However, Anthony Hopkins is not an ordinary celebrity. First and foremost, he is an artist and has a legendary career in acting. There’s a likely chance that Mr. Hopkins is expressing a genuine interest in web3 and how it is changing the way that art is being created and delivered to audiences.
While we cannot claim to know Mr. Hopkin’s motivations inspired by NFTs, it is safe to assume that he, as an artist, has found a new paint brush. Since his interest in NFTs began earlier this summer, his twitter feed has advocated for the art that NFTs are producing which leads to an interesting question: Does the art carry the fame or is the fame carrying the art?
When evaluating a project being created by a celebrity, it is important to answer this question because it will help determine how successful the project will be. Artists such as Anthony Hopkins have the ability to say that their fame was created by their art opposed to celebrities who are using their fame to sell their art instead.
To find the answer to this question, we will have to wait and see what happens to the value of the Eternal Collection, post-reveal and beyond.
