blockworks.co
He owns 75 luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and Tag Heuer, a luxury superyacht named Symphony, his own private island in the Bahamas and, uncharacteristically, a collection of NFTs.
Turns out, the world’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, has his own little nest egg of digital collectibles, despite past comments that seemed to show hesitancy regarding the technology.
In a conversation with his former advisor and chief digital officer of LVMH, Ian Rogers, the chair and CEO of the conglomerate of luxury brands, revealed his own NFT collection.
Arnault has reportedly exhibited a “tepid” attitude toward the technology in the past, despite his sons showing considerably greater interest. Alexandre Arnault once touted a jewel-laden Cryptopunk Tiffany pendant and brother Frédéric Arnault, CEO of Tag Heuer, showed off his enthusiasm for Web3 tech with NFT display functionality on the luxury watch brand.
Arnault senior has remained relatively quiet on the topic, but in a recent Aarthi and Sriram podcast, Rogers, who has since become the chief experience officer at Ledger and is working on the soon-to-be-released Ledger Stax wallet, confides to the hosts his certainty about Arnault’s digital collection.
The host asks, “You’re telling me Bernard Arnault has a wallet and maybe is buying some NFTs that we don’t know about?”
“There’s no question,” Rogers replies, “He has shown me, on his own volition, his OpenSea page.”
“Which means, he had to pull out his phone, find it and then take me through it. So, yes.”