Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Compares Bored Ape NFT Investments to Gambling

As NFTs became popular outside the crypto community, the prices skyrocketed to unseen heights since the end of 2021. According to NonFungible, over the past week, there have been $15 million worth of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT sales, with over a 116% increase in unique buyers.

However, some prominent figures in the crypto industry are not very fond of the recent NFT hype, especially the BAYC collection.

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In a recent interview with TIME, the co-creator of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin spoke on the current situation of crypto assets and expressed his concerns about the future of digital finance.

Alongside the effects of crypto on the environment, and malicious activity surrounding the industry, Buterin addressed "overeager investors" who are publicly displaying their riches in the form of NFTs and ruining the image of the crypto industry. 

He subtly mentioned the BAYC collection and its derivatives, stating:

"The peril is you have these $3 million monkeys and it becomes a different kind of gambling. There definitely are lots of people that are just buying yachts and Lambos."

Likewise, he addressed the situation in Ukraine, and how it showed the "ultimate goal of crypto" which is to help people out of difficult situations, not to "play games with million-dollar pictures of monkeys."

Just yesterday, the creators of a Bored Ape Yacht club spin-off called Caked Apes started suing each other over the distribution of revenue amongst the team.