Benzinga

España
Italia
대한민국
日本
Français
Benzinga Edge
Benzinga Research
Benzinga Pro

  • Get Benzinga Pro
  • Data & APIs
  • Events
  • Premarket
  • Advertise
Contribute
España
Italia
대한민국
日本
Français

Benzinga

  • Premium Services
  • Financial News
    Latest
    Earnings
    Guidance
    Dividends
    M&A
    Buybacks
    Interviews
    Management
    Offerings
    IPOs
    Insider Trades
    Biotech/FDA
    Politics
    Healthcare
    Small-Cap
  • Markets
    Pre-Market
    After Hours
    Movers
    ETFs
    Options
    Cryptocurrency
    Commodities
    Bonds
    Futures
    Mining
    Real Estate
    Volatility
  • Ratings
    Analyst Color
    Downgrades
    Upgrades
    Initiations
    Price Target
  • Investing Ideas
    Trade Ideas
    Long Ideas
    Short Ideas
    Technicals
    Analyst Ratings
    Analyst Color
    Latest Rumors
    Whisper Index
    Stock of the Day
    Best Stocks & ETFs
    Best Penny Stocks
    Best S&P 500 ETFs
    Best Swing Trade Stocks
    Best Blue Chip Stocks
    Best High-Volume Penny Stocks
    Best Small Cap ETFs
    Best Stocks to Day Trade
    Best REITs
  • Money
    Investing
    Cryptocurrency
    Mortgage
    Insurance
    Yield
    Personal Finance
    Forex
    Startup Investing
    Real Estate Investing
    Prop Trading
    Credit Cards
    Stock Brokers
Research
My Stocks
Tools
Free Benzinga Pro Trial
Calendars
Analyst Ratings Calendar
Conference Call Calendar
Dividend Calendar
Earnings Calendar
Economic Calendar
FDA Calendar
Guidance Calendar
IPO Calendar
M&A Calendar
Unusual Options Activity Calendar
SPAC Calendar
Stock Split Calendar
Trade Ideas
Free Stock Reports
Insider Trades
Trade Idea Feed
Analyst Ratings
Unusual Options Activity
Heatmaps
Free Newsletter
Government Trades
Perfect Stock Portfolio
Easy Income Portfolio
Short Interest
Most Shorted
Largest Increase
Largest Decrease
Calculators
Margin Calculator
Forex Profit Calculator
100x Options Profit Calculator
Screeners
Stock Screener
Top Momentum Stocks
Top Quality Stocks
Top Value Stocks
Top Growth Stocks
Compare Best Stocks
Best Momentum Stocks
Best Quality Stocks
Best Value Stocks
Best Growth Stocks
Connect With Us
facebookinstagramlinkedintwitteryoutubeblueskymastodon
About Benzinga
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
Market Resources
  • Advanced Stock Screener Tools
  • Options Trading Chain Analysis
  • Comprehensive Earnings Calendar
  • Dividend Investor Calendar and Alerts
  • Economic Calendar and Market Events
  • IPO Calendar and New Listings
  • Market Outlook and Analysis
  • Wall Street Analyst Ratings and Targets
Trading Tools & Education
  • Benzinga Pro Trading Platform
  • Options Trading Strategies and News
  • Stock Market Trading Ideas and Analysis
  • Technical Analysis Charts and Indicators
  • Fundamental Analysis and Valuation
  • Day Trading Guides and Strategies
  • Live Investors Events
  • Pre market Stock Analysis and News
  • Cryptocurrency Market Analysis and News
Ring the Bell

A newsletter built for market enthusiasts by market enthusiasts. Top stories, top movers, and trade ideas delivered to your inbox every weekday before and after the market closes.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Do Not Sell My Personal Data/Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Service Status
  • Sitemap
© 2026 Benzinga | All Rights Reserved
November 1, 2023 7:05 PM 3 min read

Elon Musk Takes Shot At NFTs Once Again: 'It's Just A URL To The JPEG'

by Chris Katje Benzinga Staff Writer
Follow

ArticleFeaturedTickersList12345!!!

Billionaire Elon Musk is a fan of several cryptocurrencies but also a notable critic of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Musk shared more criticism of NFTs during an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan.

What Happened: Over the last few years, Musk has been a fan of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE).

The billionaire has criticized NFTs in the past, but also praised the work of noted NFT artist Beeple. The start of the podcast with Rogan and Musk kicked off with a short conversation on Beeple.

"He's pretty edgy," Musk said of Beeple.

Musk admitted he used to follow Beeple on "the X platform," but had to stop as some of the images were "too jarring."

The duo discussed how impressive it was that Beeple does a new digital image creation every single day.

Beeple responded on Twitter, now known as X, to thank Musk for the shoutout and to also apologize for "the night terrors."

Later in their interview, Rogan and Musk discussed the large amounts of scams in the cryptocurrency sector and Rogan noted that most NFTs are scams, but said that Beeple was "legit."

Musk shared his criticism of NFTs, but it came mostly from a place of technicality rather than a hatred of the idea.

"NFTs not even on the blockchain, it's just a URL to the JPEG," Musk said. "Should at least encode the JPEG in the blockchain."

Musk added if the company housing the images goes out of business, "you don't' have the image anymore."

Related Link: Twitter Getting More Web3 Friendly, But Will It Last With NFT Hater Elon Musk Now In Charge

Why It's Important: Musk's past criticism of NFTs includes calling out X for prioritizing NFT profile picture verification over focusing on spambots.

Musk previously said that "NFTs are jpeging the dollar" and shared several memes making fun of NFTs including

In May 2022, Musk trolled owners of NFTs by changing his Twitter profile picture to a collage of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.

"I dunno … seems kinda fungible," Musk tweeted at the time.

Speculation increased that Musk might own a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT thanks to a picture of him with the co-founder of MoonPay, a company that onboarded multiple celebrities to the NFT space.

With the criticism of non-fungible tokens not being on the blockchain, several people have pointed out some NFT collections are on-chain and shared the rise of Bitcoin ordinals that happened in 2023.

OnChainMonkey was one of the NFT collections that was on-chain.

OnChainMonkey co-founder Danny Yang also shared his take on Musk's comments.

"He's spot on in saying NFTs are url pointers to JPEGs that are not on the blockchain. That's most NFTs. That's because the Ethereum ERC-721 standard for NFTs is the most widely adopted standard for NFTs," Yang tweeted.

Yang said the new NFT standard on Bitcoin called Ordinals is around "actual on-chain NFTs."

"Elon may like Ordinals. We are early!" OnChainMonkey tweeted.

NFT analyst Punk9059 shared data showing how Musk's comments may have led to increased activity in on-chain NFTs.

"Bitcoin Punks, OnChainMonkey, Bitcoin Frogs all strong on the back of Bitcoin strength and Elon's comments about onchain storage of NFTs," the account tweeted.

NFT collection Art Blocks also highlighted that they are on-chain in a Twitter post telling Musk that they "beg to differ" about NFTs not being on-chain.

Twitter account @NFTBark said that the comment from Musk "misses the opportunity this tech presents."

"We need to stop using the term ‘NFTs' interchangeably with the PFP and digital art market. This software can do so much more than that. The concept of provable digital ownership has widespread general purpose applications across a variety of industries," the account tweeted.

NFTBark shared examples of industries such as ticketing, apparel, healthcare and others that could use the blockchain for good.

Read Next: What Are Bitcoin Ordinals?

Meet and engage with transformative Digital Asset and Crypto business leaders and investors at Benzinga’s exclusive event: Future of Digital Assets. Tickets are flying: Get yours!

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


Posted In:
CryptocurrencyBeepleElon MuskJoe RoganNFTsnon-fungible tokens
BTC/USD Logo
$BTCBitcoin
$72855.99-3.71%
Overview
DOGE/USD Logo
$DOGEDogecoin
$0.1018-3.83%
BTC/USD Logo
$BTCBitcoin
$72855.99-3.71%
Overview
DOGE/USD Logo
$DOGEDogecoin
$0.1018-3.83%
Comments
Loading...