Who Is the Weird Whales NFT Collection’s Creator? Meet Benyamin Ahmed

NFTs have taken the world by storm. The first major jolt came when Beeple made history and sold a digital work of art at Christie's auction house for $69 million. The market cap for NFTs (non-fungible tokens) grew by 1,785 percent in the first quarter of 2021. The NFT craze has made a number of artists millionaires in a short period of time.

Amid all this hype, a 12-year-old in London is creating a niche for himself. Benyamin Ahmed launched his own NFT Collectibles called “Weird Whales.” Here's what we know about the Weird Whales' NFT creator and how he created the successful NFT collectible.

NFTs are similar to antiques and other rare physical goods because they can gain value from various factors including their rarity, capability, and who’s releasing them. NFT marketplaces are similar except that NFTs can offer much more than just being a collectible. These digital collectibles could be used in video games, competitions, and more.

Benyamin Ahmed is a 12-year-old London-based developer. He started coding at the age of five. Ahmed’s father is a web developer and following his footsteps, Ahmed learned HTMl, CSS, and Javascript quite early on. During an interview with CNBC, the 12-year-old said, “I first learned about NFTs earlier this year.”

Ahmed first dropped his collection of weird whales in July 2021, which sold out in a matter of just 90 minutes. He raised 80 Ethereum (ETH) from the collection in just a day. Ahmed is still holding those ETH, which are worth over $367,800 at the pricing on Nov. 2. Since then, he has earned an additional 30 ETH from the resale market. When a whale is sold, Ahmed gets 2.5 percent on every secondary sale.

However, the project wasn't Ahmed's first NFT collection. Earlier in the summer, he launched his first NFT collection, known as "Minecraft Yee Haa." While this collection wasn't as successful as his second one, Ahmed used it as a learning experience.

Weird Whales, Ahmed’s second NFT collection, features 3,350 pixealated whales, each with a distinct trait. To create this project, Ahmed learned coding using online tutorials. Some mentors on Discord also helped him set up his collection. His father said that one of the developers behind another NFT project called "Boring Bananas" sent Ahmed a script to use as a template for coding Weird Whales.

Ahmed is already working on his third collection which will be superhero-themed. He thinks that many more successful NFT collections will have a meme component. Going forward, Ahmed also wants to make an underwater game featuring whales.

The next step in Ahmed’s NFT journey would be owning his intellectual property. His father is working towards this end and is already in contact with lawyers to trademark Weird Whales and other upcoming projects. Ahmed has set his aim higher and hopes to become like other tech entrepreneurs including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.