If you just followed NFT NYC from afar on Twitter this week, you could easily get the impression that the whole event was a disaster that only resulted in public ridicule. It was tweets makes fun of Apefesttweets laughing at one NFT date suggestionand a viral tweet thread stating that NFT NYC had “already failed“Monday night, when the week had just begun.
The truth is less satisfying to NFT skeptics and haters: the vibes were superpositive and everyone I met was bullish, despite the brutal crypto downturn. Like Amy Wu from FTX Ventures twitret“Last week, ppl told me that #NFTNYC would be weird because crypto was dead. Glad to report the opposite happened.”
At lunches, panels and parties scattered throughout the city, people proudly pumped their JPEGs, of course. There were plenty of punks, monkeys, cool cats and stray cats sewn on hats, hoodies and denim jackets. But people also discussed NFTs with utility, NFTs as tickets to IRL events and other potential uses beyond just a wealth flex.
Two specific parties in particular provided a perfect random contrast in where the hottest NFT collections are right now.
Doodle’s CEO Julian Holguin on stage at the Doodles party on June 21, 2022. (Photo: André Beganski / Decrypt)
Doodles, the No. 13 best-selling NFT collection ever, held a “kickoff party” Tuesday night at the Palladium Theater in Times Square. The event was called until 19.00, but Doodles holders had to wait for their seats for hours until the presentation finally started at 22.05. That was when Doodles boss Julian Holguin, a former Billboard boss, took the stage.
Holguin ran through a PowerPoint presentation. One slide reminded the audience of what Doodles has achieved to date, with bullet points such as “sold out in minutes” and “2600 ETH in the Doodle Bank.” Then Holguin reviewed all the marketing activities Doodles did at this year’s SXSW conference three months ago. Even devoted Doodles holders in the audience groaned.
It felt like a corporate presentation at NewFronts in 2011.
Finally, Holguin introduced a pre-recorded video from Alexis Ohanian announcing that 776 Ventures was leading the first Doodles fundraiser ever (Doodles did not say the size of the raise). Then he introduced a pre-recorded video from Pharrell, the new brand manager at Doodles; broke out the audience.
After the Doodles event, I went to the Goblintown party at Terminal 5. The contrast was like night and day.
Goblintown graffiti art on a burger car at a party June 21, 2022. (Photo: André Beganski / Decrypt)
For the uninitiated, the Goblintown NFT collection came out of nowhere last month, and on June 1, the floor price doubled overnight to around 9 ETH, or $ 17,000 at the time. Its OpenSea floor price has since dropped to 3.65 ETH, or $ 4,500. The collection is themed around urine and nihilism, and boasts “No roadmap. No Discord. No utility.”
So it was fitting that the Goblintown party had a grungy, unpretentious vibe. A truck outside serving cheeseburgers; the party organizers spoke only in magic; inside the party were Illuminati triangles, tarot cards and a (real) tattoo station. At an afterparty on the dance floor of Chelsea Music Hall, several people were in goblin masks, rubbery burgers and “WANTED” signs with Beeple’s face on. Steve Aoki DJ’d.
It was pure fun, without talking about marketing activations or chief brand officers. It hit the right note for the current crypto market. It felt like a community.
The response from Doodles fans to all of this will be obvious: Doodles is taking serious steps as a business to bring value to the owners and expand the brand. NFT influences @NFTbark attended the Doodles event and fabled in a thread“Doodles is a brand ready to permeate pop culture for years to come.” He loved the slides and mission statements. He concluded that the presentation “would be impressive in a Fortune 500 company.”
Maybe. But NFTs should be fun too. If it’s not fun, what are we doing here, other than flipping comics for profit?
Sounds like they have everything in place to become a major multimedia entertainment brand. Now they just have to convince millions of people how a cartoon character with a loose retina that throws up rainbows will fit into their lives in a meaningful way
I do not own a Bored Monkey or a Goblin, but now I know which group has better parties.
This is the editor’s nodea recurring weekend column from Editor-in-Chief Daniel Roberts. Read the previous issue: Bored Ape Yacht Club and the limitations of NFT ownership.
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