Justin Sun (founder of Tron Network) has acquired a Joker inspired artwork from Bored Ape Yacht Club Tron(BAYCTron), today’s most popular NFT collection on his blockchain. Price tag: The price tag? 150,000,000 TRX, or $15 Million.
With this transaction, the artwork BAYCT #6666 takes first place as Tron’s most expensive NFT sale to date. A position previously held by another Justin Sun purchase — the Tpunk #3442, which sold for $10,5 million in August 2021. His Tpunk, ironically enough, was also inspired in part by DC Comics’ Joker Movie.
Crypto Punk #NFTThe most costly @TwitterTen million dollars worth of avatars! Today, however, the world record was reaffirmed.
A new Ape avatar was purchased with $15M in cash #TRX today!
Art is all about the #NFTAvatar is the future of artistic showcase for today’s generation. https://t.co/Jmam6rv2Xb
— Justin Sun 🅣🌞 (@justinsuntron) November 30, 2021
Chinese-born tech billionaire Sun is 31 years old and a strong believer of the digital arts space, especially the importance of using non-fungible tokens to facilitate its growth. Justifying his latest acquisition, Sun wrote on Twitter: “After all, the art of the #NFT avatar is the new artistic showcasing for our generation.”
While this sudden move by Justin Sun took the BAYCTron community by surprise, it is widely known that this collection has been among the entrepreneur’s favorites alongside Tpunks and Tronmeebits.
The purchased Joker artwork is part of a 10,000 NFT collection released on top of the Tron network earlier this year, and that sold out in just under 72 hours, becoming one of this blockchain’s fastest-selling collections. TRC-721 artworks pay homage to Ethereum’s original Bored Ape collection, and include a variety of pieces with visual elements that are related to Tron.
“This purchase sends a strong message – the Tron NFT landscape is here to stay. The network provides great benefits for artists looking to manage their collections. It offers low fees, strong support networks and community. We are delighted to hear about Justin’s purchase and expect other minters of our collection will also benefit from the growing secondary market activity in the coming months,”Carolina Matusso (BAYCTron CMO)
APENFT Foundation, a world-class curator group that identifies and supports potential artists on multiple blockchains including Tron and Ethereum also noticed the collection. APENFT, BAYCTron and a strategic partnership was signed in September. This will encourage further development.
🥳🥳We are pleased to announce that we have entered into strategic cooperation @BAYCTronThis is the third TRON NFT project, after Tron Meetbits and Tpunk. This is the first public support item since APENFT established the NFT Special Fund. @Tronfoundation @BitTorrent pic.twitter.com/CrQyDCy408
— APENFT (@apenftorg) September 22, 2021
The efforts of APENFT seem perfectly aligned with BAYCTron’s plan. Tron Foundation and the curatorial organisation APENFT have just established $100 million to help emerging NFT artists and projects in this network.
Mutant Apes Gain Traction Among Collectors
The minting of the BAYCTron Mutant Apes Collection is quickly picking up thanks to the direct support of Justin Sun and strong Tron communities. At the time of writing, 35 percent have been produced.
New collection is no less thrilling than the original. Mutants are distinctively modeled after Harley Quinn, Kill Bill and the Joker. Mutant Apes may still be made by collectors, at a cost fixed at 1000 TRX ($100), with the hope that the new collection can replicate the luck of the original Apes.