Gary Vaynerchuk: NFTs will go beyond just being collectibles

Image credit: Gary Vaynerchuk at VeeCon 2023

Welcome back to Chain Reaction, a podcast that unpacks and dives deep into the latest trends, drama and news with some of the biggest names in crypto and breaks things down block by block for the crypto curious.

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk, better known as Gary Vee. He is chairman of the board of VaynerX and CEO of VaynerMedia and the NFT collection VeeFriends.

The inspiration behind VeeFriends began between 2018 and 2019 when Vaynerchuk originally wanted to start a line of stationary toys for “positive reinforcement.” The idea stems from the thousands of direct messages he receives monthly from people saying how they dislike their jobs.

“One day after reading five or six of them and going to the lab in my office, I passed like ten desks,” Vaynerchuk said. “Every single one of the desks I walked by — my staff had little Simpsons figures, little Marvel figures, little Marvel figures, little anime figures.”

So originally he was going to launch a toy line, but COVID-19 happened and the NFT boom began, which is where Vaynerchuk merged his plan through the digital asset sector. “I had a big audience … but I focused on real life,” Vaynerchuk said. “First I thought I was building Disney, now I think I’m building Sesame Street … I want to create a universe, and I thought the NFT technology was an incredibly fun way to start it.”

The future of NFTs and IP

While some major NFT collectives like Pudgy Penguins and Bored Ape Yacht Club are expanding their intellectual property beyond the digital world into areas like toys, apparel and more, Vaynerchuk doesn’t think that move is right for every project. “I don’t think everyone is capable of that, you have to be self-aware of what you’re good at or not, but it’s something everyone should consider because it opens up a lot more opportunities.”

In terms of greater mainstream adoption, Vaynerchuk doesn’t think digital collectibles are going to be the biggest path forward for NFT’s growth. “I think it’s going to be ticketing, contracts, title insurance, things like that.”

The Internet used to be referred to as the “information superhighway” 30 years ago because it was seen as a place like a library for people to do research, Vaynerchuk said. “Today we know the internet much more.”

In a similar vein, Vaynerchuk sees NFT collectibles as part of the ecosystem, but believes in 20 years, when people hear the term NFT, “they’re not going to default to thinking it’s a collectible, they’re going to see it more broadly .”

We also delved into a handful of topics surrounding the NFT ecosystem today and its future, mainstream adoption, and Vaynerchuk’s advice for other projects.

For further context, Vaynerchuk is a five-time New York Times bestselling author and previously created Wine Library, one of the first alcohol e-commerce platforms in the early 2000s. In 2009, he founded VaynerMedia together with his younger brother AJ and today continues to expand the company to clients such as PepsiCo, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Chase and others.

He’s a die hard New York Jets fan (and plans to buy the team one day), as well as an investor in a handful of major companies like Twitter, Venmo, and Facebook—which we also talk about in the episode.

Chain Reaction comes out every other Thursday, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the latest in web3 and crypto.