There are many celebrities that have looked to enter the world of NFTs, with some fairing better than others. Donald Trump’s two collections sold out almost within hours, whilst the Ape Kids Football Club that John Terry was involved in lost all of its value within months of launching. Not everyone knows who Hasbulla is, but those that do have been keen to get involved with his NFT collection, seeing its popularity soar as a result. Renowned on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, Hasbulla Magomedov took advantage of his fame by launching an NFT collection that was quickly bought by his millions of followers.
The blogger from the Russian Federation who has Growth Hormone Deficiency, making him look like a small child even though he’s over 20-years-old, gained his popularity by posting amusing videos, earning him some famous followers. The rapper, Kanye West, followed him, for example, whilst the one-time UFC lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, became friends with him. This allowed him to tap into the UFC market, making him something of a celebrity in the MMA community. The obvious question is what, exactly, his NFT collection is all about and why it is that so many people chose to invest in the digital tokens.
Who Is Hasbulla?
Hasbulla Magomedovich Magomedov was born on the 7th of July, 2002 in Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan, Russia. The son of a plumber, he is a Muslim and ethnically considered to be of Dargin, saying in an interview once that he disliked the years he spent in an Islamic school. After he escaped, having a friend drive him more than 200 kilometres to get away, he began creating videos for the internet. Part of his appeal to people is his appearance, with the form of dwarfism that he suffers from as a result of a Growth Hormone Deficiency causing him to be just 102 centimetres tall and weighing a mere 40 pounds.
The New York Times wrote a description about him, sating that the things that he is passionate about are, “shooting guns, driving fast cars, practicing fighting moves, and playing pranks”. One of the first videos that he created that went viral showed him using a motorised scooter and telling a young person on a bike off for breaking lockdown restrictions, informing him that he should go home. He has met the UFC star, Khabib Nurmagomedov, several times, with the pair posting videos and photos with each other, effectively giving him access to the world of UFC and seeing his popularity with the MMA world rise as a result.
Launching an NFT Collection
The nature of Non-Fungible Tokens is such that every new collection of them is met with a fanfare from the community. When Hasbulla released his own collection of limited NFTs, promising benefits to those that bought them, it was felt that it would be either the next bing thing or else another flash in the pan in a world that had seen plenty such collections come and go over the years since it launched. The Crypto Hasbulla collection saw 10,000 NFTs launched in January 2023, with each piece of art being hand-drawn and showing the main character in a wealth of different circumstances, their unique quality being part of the appeal.
The collection was launched on the 19th of the January, selling out within ten minutes. So popular were they that they were ranked as number two on the OpenSea site, with the site for the project offering people an ‘eduction hub’, which was designed to inform people what NFTs actually are and how they work. The Ethereum-based NFTs were released in a series of drops, with about 500 or so NFTs released each time and the drop date and mint prices released on the Crypto Hasbulla Discord channel in advance. The NFTs themselves show Hasbulla in numerous different states, from wearing a wig to looking as though he’s playing basketball.
Why They Are So Popular
Whilst many different well-known people have launched NFT collections, not all of them have done all that well. The same cannot be said of Hasbulla, who appears to have used his celebrity to keep the value of his NFTs in the time since it launched. He is an internet personality, earning a strong and loyal following in a similar way to how Donald Trump was able to remain popular even in spite of his involvement in the insurrection of January 2021. Hasbulla himself has not been without controversy, such as when he released a video in the March of 2023 showing him scolding his pet cat, even punching her and pulling her ears.
A big part of their initial popularity, though, came in their utility. They were not just works of art, offering owners the opportunity to become members of an exclusive club. Some were given the chance to meet with the man himself, either in real life or online, whilst invitations to VIP events and get-togethers were common. There was also a party for NFT holders early on, whilst prizes and incentives were offered throughout the first year of the NFTs being on sale. Holders of Hasbulla NFTs were airdropped ‘Hasbi Tokens’ once the entire collection had sold out, with owners able to stake their NFTs for 10% royalties.
The fact that each and every one of the tokens was hand-drawn, as opposed to having used Artificial Intelligence to create them, obviously made them extremely rare. There were different backgrounds, designs, facial expressions and clothing used to ensure rarity, as well as various weapons and other backpacks. The more NFTs a user owned, the more benefit they would see, such as increased discount on Hasbulla merchandise. Mainly, though, the chief reason for the popularity of the Hasbulla NFT collection is the fame of the person that they’re based on as well as the people that he has become social media friends with.
