Lil Uzi Vert Claiming To Buy Planet WASP-127b Deemed A 'Fraud'

After causing some confusion online over claims he purchased an entire planet, Lil Uzi Vert’s latest business transaction is being deemed a “fraud.”

Source: Rich Fury / Getty

According to reports from Business Insider, two experts in the field of space law have debunked the rapper’s supposed purchase of planet WASP-127b, calling the transaction “bogus.”

Frans Von der Dunk–a professor of Space Law at University of Nebraska-Lincoln–told the publication the following:

“If someone sold him a planet or he thinks he own this planet in the normal sense of the word, it’s simply not true. It’s fraud.”

Supporting that exact same sentiment, Ram Jakhu, the director of McGill’s Institute of Air and Space Law, said that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty specifically prohibits all nations and its citizens from claiming sovereignty over “outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies.”

According to Jakhu, if an individual wants to “own” land from space, the closest item they can come is owning a mineral.

“You can give them your money, but it doesn’t mean anything,” he went on to explain. “There will always be companies trying to sell you things. If they can make money off you, why wouldn’t they? But, that doesn’t mean it’s legally recognized.”

Even though both experts acknowledged there are companies trying to “sell” the naming rights to stars or plots of land on the moon, they simply have no legal value. Business Insider also points out that if planets were ever legally sold to individuals, it would cost over a trillion dollars, a calculation based on an astrophysicist’s 2020 calculation of the Earth’s value at $5 quadrillion USD.

The musician Grimes is the one who first broke the news of Uzi’s alleged purchase of a planet, sending out the tweet that started our collective confusion.

“Apparently @LILUZIVERT owns this planet – just a heads up,” she tweeted on July 21, along with a picture of the supposed planet in question. She went on to add that the documentation was “almost complete” and that the rapper would be the “[f]irst human to legally own a planet.”

Uzi went on to respond to Grimes’ tweet with a confirmation, writing, “I tried 2 surprise everyone still working on it #neuralink.”

Fans immediately started to inquire about the obvious, asking: If no one has ever owned a planet before, who has the authority to sell this one to Uzi? Apparently, the answer is…nobody. This whole thing was fake all along.

But, hey, shoutout to whoever finessed the entertainer out of what’s probably a pretty big bag with the promise of owning a planet. Creativity at its finest.