Snoop Dogg Reveals Himself as Ethereum NFT Whale With $17M Collection

The rapper says that he is Cozomo de’ Medici, a pseudonymous crypto Twitter personality with a highly valuable NFT collection.

By Andrew Hayward

In brief

• Rapper Snoop Dogg tweeted this week that he has been collecting valuable NFTs under the Twitter pseudonym, Cozomo de’ Medici.
• His wallet holds an estimated $17 million worth of Ethereum NFTs, including nine CryptoPunks.

Snoop Dogg has already made waves in the NFT space, launching his own branded collectibles this spring, as well as a collaboration with the creator of the popular meme, Nyan Cat.

However, the rapper’s latest move is truly unexpected: he claims to be the real person behind a pseudonymous crypto Twitter personality—one that has spent millions of dollars acquiring a very valuable collection of blue chip Ethereum NFTs.

On Monday, Snoop Dogg tweeted to his 19 million followers that he is Cozomo de’ Medici, a pseudonymous NFT collector that joined Twitter in August. Cozomo has been tweeting steadily through his NFT journey in recent weeks, discussing the large sums of money spent on popular NFT collections while displaying an in-depth understanding of the culture.

Snoop isn’t alone as a celebrity NFT collector: NBA athlete Stephen Curry, social media star Jake Paul, and comedian and TV host Steve Harvey are among the notable owners. And he isn’t even the first celebrity to create a separate crypto-centric “burner” account on Twitter: fellow rapper and YouTube personality KSI has one, for example, to keep his crypto musings off of main.

But Snoop didn’t create his NFT-centric Twitter personality in public, linked to his existing social media channels. Before he chose to reveal it to the world yesterday, it was a pseudonym first with no apparent ties to Snoop.

Also notable: Snoop appears to have a seriously valuable NFT collection. Cozomo de’ Medici’s wallet has more than $17 million worth of collectibles within, according to DappRadar’s portfolio estimate tool.

The collection is headlined by nine CryptoPunks, with the most valuable of the profile picture NFTs estimated at $4.6 million based on current market prices. The wallet also has 10 Meebits NFTs—the 3D avatars created by CryptoPunks makers Larva Labs—as well as a bunch of different NFTs from the generative artwork series, Art Blocks.

An NFT acts like a receipt or a deed of ownership to a provably scarce digital item, and it can represent a still image, video file, video game item, and plenty more. Other valuable holdings in Cozomo’s wallet include an NFT from photographer Justin Aversano’s Twin Flames collection, as well as a couple of Moonshot Bots, which benefit the development of Ethereum tools. Earlier this month, Cozomo even tweeted about the value of supporting Ethereum developers.

Snoop also appears to own several of Tom Sachs’ Rocket Factory NFTs—the same collection that Budweiser bought from. And like Budweiser, which found its wallet flooded with all sorts of random NFTs once the address was exposed to the public, Cozomo's wallet has been sent a steady stream of oddball collectibles since yesterday.

In addition to tweeting out his pseudonymous identity yesterday, Snoop Dogg also retweeted noted NFT investor and project advisor DCinvestor. Additionally, Cozomo’s wallet owns the Snoop x Nyancat NFT that Snoop Dogg is currently using as his main profile picture.

If it’s all a ruse, somehow, then it’s one that hasn’t yet been spoiled: Snoop has gone on to tweet non-NFT things, like a collaboration with Beyond Meats. Meanwhile, Cozomo’s account tweeted yesterday that it would no longer discuss the real person behind the pseudonym.

“As my fame is considerable, the tweet will no doubt be discovered. Those who are curious to [know] my identity will soon know it,” Cozomo tweeted. “Those who do not care, or simply prefer to not know the source of my vast fame and fortune, may simply not research. I will keep this account focused on NFTs, and not mention this again here.”