NEWS

Steve Aoki stops gig to show off his new $859,000 NFT

Steve Aoki paused one of his sets to introduce fans to his latest NFT purchase.

The DJ said that he had to stop the music because he was “so fucking excited” about his new buy, which is a sketch of an alien by the famed illustrator doodles.

According to Rarity Sniper, Aoki bought the drawing for 269.69 ETH, which is the equivalent of $859,000 (£627,053).

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In a video that Aoki tweeted after the gig, he is seen showing off the NFT to the crowd. “Check this little gorgeous alien out,” he says in the clip. “Look at him! I had to stop the music because I’m so fucking excited.

“This is the Steve Aoki doodle, take a good look guys!”

He captioned the tweet with: “Had to stop my show to celebrate my excitement on my doodle! NFTs make me feel like a kid again.”

After the sale, Aoki tweeted on Friday (January 7): “Just purchased the 9th rarest doodles in existence! There are only 10 alien type doodles ever created and I own one of them now! Welcome #2238 to the family!”

Mixmag reports that the floor price for doodle’s lucrative collection has jumped up by more than 60 per cent since Aoki’s purchase. The collection includes more than 10,000 “doodles”, one of which is reportedly owned by Snoop Dogg.

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Aoki recently launched his own NFT marketplace alongside comic book author Todd McFarlane, which is called Oddkey.

He spoke to Forbes last November about the project. “I’d been wanting to collaborate with him for years. This was the perfect way to do it, to build a marketplace that resembles what he’s already been doing for decades, but for the digital landscape, NFTs,” he said.

In other news, the EDM DJ recently unveiled new merch and music collaborations with Capcom for Street Fighter V’s Winter Update.