Azealia Banks And Ryder Ripps Sell Sex Tape NFT For $18,000

As NFTs continue to dominate headlines across the internet, they continue getting more and more peculiar. Within the last week, Bad Luck Brian, Kitty Cat Dance, Coughing Cat and many more meme-related pieces of crypto art have been auctioned off, but this week’s sex tape NFT is undeniably the most curious.

A first for the crypto art world, a sex tape featuring audio of musician Azealia Banks and her boyfriend, artist Ryder Ripps, was sold as a non-fungible token over the weekend for roughly $18,000 (10 ETH). The 24-minute album is titled “I FUCKED RYDER RIPPS” and includes audio of the two having sex.

The 1 of 1 auction, purchased by an artist named Rulton Fyder on the digital art marketplace Foundation, grants full ownership of the recording, distribution and display rights, sole access to the WAV file and the only existing LP vinyl record of the sex tape, which is also autographed.

Fyder later tweeted “#SexTapesAreArtworks” after making the purchase, and then proceeded to turn that tweet into an NFT of its own.

Ripps, who also claims to have popularized the “Deal With It” glasses meme that sold last week as an NFT for around $27,000, spoke with us about the two recent auctions and the growing crypto art world to give us some insight into the two NFTs.

When asked about how he learned of crypto art and NFTs, Ripps said he's been aware of the scene and active in mining cryptocurrencies like Ethereum for several years. While surprised by the recent growth and interest in NFTs, he said that he welcomes it and expects to see much more in the near future. "It's fantastic to have a unified/shared system for establishing ownership in the metaphysical realm of goods."

Given the oddity of selling a sex tape as an NFT, something expressed by many upon learning of the recent Banks' sale, Ripps said he doesn't think it's all that bizarre compared to some of the recent crypto art that's been making waves.

"It makes a lot more sense to use smart contracts to establish ownership of intellectual property than to buy a token represented by an image that doesn't establish ownership in anything privileged besides the token itself," Ripps told us. "I believe, in the future, smart contracts/NFTs will be used more the way I used it in the Azealia Banks audio sex-tape — for keeping a shared ledger of rights and ownership for intellectual property."