Teens and NFTs

Jaiden Stipp couldn’t believe his eyes. It was February 2021, and the then 15-year-old from Tacoma, Washington, was selling his first piece of digital artwork as an NFT, or non-fungible token. Well past midnight, he remained fixated on his computer screen, watching in awe as the bids climbed higher and higher.

When Jaiden woke up in the morning, bids were still pouring in. The final selling price for his cartoonish graphic of an astronaut-skeleton waving at the moon was 20ETH*—an amount in cryptocurrency worth about $30,000 at the time.

“I was like freaking out and jumping around the house,” he says. “After I saw some of the huge sales going on, I was like whoa . . . these might have the potential to go pretty big.”

An NFT is a digital file that’s usually bought using cryptocurrency and is built on a blockchain (see “Terms to Know”), a decentralized digital database that supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether. With blockchain technology, NFTs transform anything digital into one-of-a-kind assets that can be bought or sold. While anyone can look at or download an NFT image, only one person owns the original—and the NFT itself gives ownership of the work. Think about it like this: You could buy a picture or a print of the Mona Lisa, but there’s only one original painting.

Jaiden Stipp couldn’t believe his eyes. It was February 2021. The then-15-year-old from Tacoma, Washington, was selling his first piece of digital artwork. It was formatted as an NFT, or non-fungible token. Well past midnight, he focused on his computer screen. He watched in awe as the bids climbed higher and higher.

When Jaiden woke up in the morning, bids were still pouring in. The piece was a cartoonish graphic of an astronaut-skeleton waving at the moon. The final selling price was 20ETH.* That was worth about $30,000 in cryptocurrency at the time.

“I was like freaking out and jumping around the house,” he says. “After I saw some of the huge sales going on, I was like whoa . . . these might have the potential to go pretty big.”

An NFT is a digital file that’s usually bought using cryptocurrency. It’s built on a blockchain (see “Terms to Know”), an open digital database that supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether. With blockchain technology, NFTs transform anything digital into one-of-a-kind assets that can be bought or sold. Anyone can look at or download an NFT image, but only one person owns the original. In fact, the NFT itself gives ownership of the work. Think about it like this: You could buy a picture or a print of the Mona Lisa, but there’s only one original painting.

The first known NFT was created in 2014, but NFTs exploded in popularity only recently. In the past few years, NFT artists, collectors, and entrepreneurs have earned millions creating and selling them. (Justin Bieber purchased an NFT of a cartoon ape for $1.29 million in January, more than three times the market value.)

And creative teens like Jaiden are cashing in. To date, Jaiden has sold more than eight works as NFTs, and his sales are valued at more than $1 million.

The first known NFT was created in 2014. But NFTs exploded in popularity only recently. In the past few years, NFT artists, collectors, and entrepreneurs have earned millions creating and selling them. (Justin Bieber purchased an NFT of a cartoon ape for $1.29 million in January, more than three times the market value.)

And creative teens like Jaiden are cashing in. To date, Jaiden has sold more than eight works as NFTs, and his sales are valued at more than $1 million.

^{*ETH is the common abbreviation for Ether, a type of cryptocurrency that is often used for buying NFTs.}   

^{*ETH is the common abbreviation for Ether, a type of cryptocurrency that is often used for buying NFTs.}   

Previously, digital artists got little respect. To the tastemakers in the world of fine art, digital art seemed more like a commercial craft. Could something made with Photoshop really be art?

Then Bitcoin—the world’s first cryptocurrency—emerged in 2009, proving that with blockchain technology, people could assign owners to unique digital items. That has opened the door for digital artists like Jaiden to market what they create as one-of-a-kind objects.

“In the NFT world, anyone can post online, market themselves on Twitter, and build a following from a young age,” says Griffin Cock Foster, who co-founded the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway.

Benyamin Ahmed, a 12-year-old boy from suburban London, released his NFT collection “Weird Whales” in July 2021. The project featured 3,350 pixelated whales, each with special traits, some rarer and thus perceived to be more valuable. The collection sold out and earned Benyamin tens of thousands of dollars.

Such success stories, though somewhat rare, have inspired enterprising young people to join the NFT boom. For some, it’s a fun after-school hobby. Others view it as a potential gateway to a full-time career.

Randi Hipper was 17 when she decided to, as she puts it, “go in-depth with the crypto space” in the fall of 2020. Hipper, who goes by “Miss Teen Crypto,” releases her digital artwork as NFTs and runs her own business with the mission of spreading crypto and NFT adoption and education to Gen Z.

“NFTs are unlike anything we have seen before,” Hipper says. “There is a huge opportunity for anyone of any age to come into the space and make a difference.”

Before now, digital artists got little respect. To the tastemakers in the world of fine art, digital art seemed more like a commercial craft. Could something made with Photoshop really be art?

Bitcoin—the world’s first cryptocurrency—emerged in 2009. Its rise proved that people could use blockchain technology to assign owners to unique digital items. That has opened the door for digital artists like Jaiden to market what they create as one-of-a-kind objects.

“In the NFT world, anyone can post online, market themselves on Twitter, and build a following from a young age,” says Griffin Cock Foster, who co-founded the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway.

Benyamin Ahmed, a 12-year-old boy from suburban London, released his NFT collection “Weird Whales” in July 2021. The project featured 3,350 pixelated whales. Each of them had special traits. Some of them were rarer and thus considered to be more valuable. The collection sold out and earned Benyamin tens of thousands of dollars.

Such success stories are somewhat rare. Still, they have inspired enterprising young people to join the NFT boom. For some, it’s a fun after-school hobby. Others view it as a potential gateway to a full-time career.

Randi Hipper was 17 when she decided to, as she puts it, “go in-depth with the crypto space” in the fall of 2020. Hipper goes by “Miss Teen Crypto.” She releases her digital artwork as NFTs. She also runs her own business with the mission of spreading crypto and NFT adoption and education to Gen Z.

“NFTs are unlike anything we have seen before,” Hipper says. “There is a huge opportunity for anyone of any age to come into the space and make a difference.”

Perhaps the most popular and successful young NFT artist is Victor Langlois, a transgender 18-year-old who goes by FEWOCiOUS, or Fewo to his fans. He makes digital art that chronicles his difficult childhood and struggles with gender identity.

In the summer of 2020, Langlois started selling NFTs of his work and began gaining a following. Soon, he came to the attention of digital art specialist at Christie’s auction house, Noah Davis, who arranged an auction of Langlois’s work last June. The online sale of five lots, titled “Hello, i’m Victor (FEWOCiOUS) and This Is My Life,” earned $2.16 million, turning Langlois into an art world star.

“Victor has been alive about as long as artists [typically] are making art before they get to Christie’s,” Davis says.

Yet while NFTs are booming, not everybody is so certain about them. Some people remain perplexed about how NFTs work, and others question why people are paying so much for them. And critics say it takes a lot of energy to mint an NFT, which is harmful to the environment.

But teens like Jaiden see NFTs as a world of possibility. And the money young people are making on them is real. Jaiden, for example, is using some of the earnings from his art to help his parents pay the bills.

For a digitally savvy teenager, making NFTs beats mowing grass.

It’s “unique to our present moment,” says Davis. “If you can make movie theater money for your summer vacation from your creativity, I can’t think of anything more utopian or American than that.”

Perhaps the most popular and successful young NFT artist is Victor Langlois. The transgender 18-year-old goes by FEWOCiOUS, or Fewo to his fans. He makes digital art about his difficult childhood and struggles with gender identity.

In the summer of 2020, Langlois started selling NFTs of his work and began gaining a following. Soon, he came to the attention of a digital art specialist at Christie’s auction house, Noah Davis. Davis arranged an auction of Langlois’s work last June. The online sale of five lots, titled “Hello, i’m Victor (FEWOCiOUS) and This Is My Life,” earned $2.16 million. The success turned Langlois into an art world star.

“Victor has been alive about as long as artists [typically] are making art before they get to Christie’s,” Davis says.

Yet while NFTs are booming, not everybody is so certain about them. Some people are still confused about how NFTs work. Others question why people are paying so much for them. And critics say it takes a lot of energy to make an NFT purchasable, which is harmful to the environment.

But teens like Jaiden see NFTs as a world of possibility. And the money young people are making on them is real. For example, Jaiden is using some of the earnings from his art to help his parents pay the bills.

For a digitally savvy teenager, making NFTs beats mowing grass.

It’s “unique to our present moment,” says Davis. “If you can make movie theater money for your summer vacation from your creativity, I can’t think of anything more utopian or American than that.”

With reporting from Steven Kurtz and Clive Thompson of The New York Times.

With reporting from Steven Kurtz and Clive Thompson of The New York Times.