Shalini Nagarajan

<div id="highlights-block_62a1aa8ae050e" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>&#8220;Silence of the Lambs&#8221; actor changes his Twitter handle to ENS name ‘AHopkins.eth’</li>
 <li>Critics suggest NFT interest has been shrinking, but data shows 183% jump in NFT marketplace collections from last year</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins is the latest celebrity to drop his Ethereum domain name on social media, joining a number of other public figures using their <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/what-is-the-ethereum-name-service-ens/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ethereum Name Service</a> as Twitter usernames.



On Wednesday, the 84-year-old Welsh actor changed <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonyHopkins" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">his verified Twitter name</a> to a crypto wallet address, similar to a website URL or email address.



This naming system, based on the Ethereum blockchain, is similar to the Domain Name Service that matches IP addresses to simple website names. In Hopkins’ case, it turns his complex wallet address “0x5b4b7f43140e79a4452408ce10dd64fd17d8a2e5” into the easily readable “<a href="https://app.zerion.io/0x5b4b7f43140e79a4452408ce10dd64fd17d8a2e5/overview" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AHopkins.eth</a>.”



It isn’t the first time Hopkins has displayed an interest in Web3. His latest sci-fi movie “Zero Contact” was the first feature film to be distributed as a NFT late last year, skipping the traditional theater release route.



In addition to his Twitter handle update, Hopkins <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonyHopkins/status/1534576219458375680" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">asked</a> fellow celebrities Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Fallon and Reese Witherspoon for recommendations on which NFT (non-fungible token) he should snap up.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">I’m astonished by all the great NFT artists. Jumping in to acquire my first piece, any recommendations? <a href="https://twitter.com/SnoopDogg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SnoopDogg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jimmyfallon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JimmyFallon</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ReeseW?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ReeseW</a> <a href="https://t.co/pjeP8dVNfD">pic.twitter.com/pjeP8dVNfD</a>&mdash; AHopkins.eth (@AnthonyHopkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonyHopkins/status/1534576219458375680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Fallon responded: “There [are] a bunch of great artists out there, and it’s a fun community in general. But, as the great Aaron Neville once said, ‘I don’t know much — but I know I love you.’ And that may be all you need to know. DM me.”



The TV host and comedian is an NFT owner in popular collections including the <a href="https://twitter.com/jimmyfallon/status/1459164143626424321?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bored Ape Yacht Club</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/jimmyfallon/status/1522723486778679296" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moonbirds</a>. Rapper Snoop Dogg is <a href="https://twitter.com/Blockworks_/status/1533397830718697473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">opening</a> a Bored Ape NFT-themed dessert restaurant in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Witherspoon is a Web3 champion whose media company Hello Sunshine is <a href="https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/reese-witherspoon-nfts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">partnering</a> with NFT collective World of Women for films and TV shows.



An NFT is a unique cryptoasset with a digital fingerprint that cannot be replicated, meaning that it can’t be replaced by another such token. Just like the authentic &#8220;Starry Night&#8221; painting by Van Gogh can’t be swapped with a duplicate, you can’t clone an NFT.



Suggestions have been floating that the NFT space is waning following a record-breaking growth in 2021, but recent data dispels that notion.



According to <a href="https://cryptomonday.de/news/2022/05/23/the-daily-average-amount-collectors-sent-to-nft-marketplaces-has-grown-by-183percent-in-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CryptoMonday.de</a>, collectors sent $37 billion to NFT marketplaces in the first quarter of 2022 — that’s a 183% jump from 2021, or nearly $308 million in daily remittances. In 2021, collectors sent $40 billion, or roughly $109 million in average daily payments, to NFT marketplaces.



Another study by <a href="https://www.los-muertos.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Los Muertos</a> found California nabbed the top spot as the most NFT-obsessed state, with data showing the term “NFT” was the most searched there than in any other state in the past year. This high ranking could be attributed to the number of celebrity endorsements of NFTs, experts said.



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