Gwyneth Paltrow changes her Twitter profile picture to an NFT

Goop founder has joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club

Gwyneth Paltrow's Twitter profile picture is no longer a self-portrait, but a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT. EPA

Gwyneth Paltrow is the latest celebrity to jump on the non-fungible token bandwagon.

The actress and Goop founder changed her Twitter profile picture to an NFT on Thursday, and in the process was upgraded to a new hexagon-shaped profile picture, a departure from the original circular ones.

Her profile picture is no longer a self-portrait, but a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT.

In her profile picture, the ape is wearing a helmet and glasses, along with a striped shirt. In the nine-second video which she tweeted to "reveal" her NFT, the ape's helmet is removed to reveal a head of blonde hair.

When you click on a Twitter profile with an NFT profile picture for the first time, you're greeted with a message from Twitter, which explains that NFTs are "are digital items that you own" and that "proof of ownership is stored on a blockchain, a digital database that is publicly accessible."

The visible change is that "NFT profile pictures are displayed in a special hexagonal shape", Twitter says. "To choose an NFT as your profile picture you must connect your crypto wallet."

The message is concluded with, "coming soon," indicating a wider rollout is still to be introduced. The official Twitter account has changed its profile to an NFT.

Twitter announced its NFT profile pictures on January 20.

The feature, available on iOS to users of the company's Twitter Blue subscription service, connects their Twitter accounts to crypto wallets where the users store NFT holdings. Tapping on the new hexagonal pictures prompts details about the art and its ownership to appear.

Twitter Blue launched in June 2021 as Twitter's first attempt at launching a subscription service with extra content available to users.

Like other tech companies, Twitter is rushing to cash in on crypto trends such as NFTs, a type of speculative asset authenticating digital items such as images, videos and land in virtual worlds.

The social media platform last year added functionality for users to send and receive Bitcoin.

Sales of NFTs reached about $25 billion in 2021, according to data from market tracker DappRadar, although there were signs of growth slowing towards the end of the year.

– Additional reporting from Reuters