Snoop Dogg about crypto winter and the future of NFTs

Perhaps the most prominent celebrity figure in the Web3 era is Snoop Dogg, but for Snoop it’s nothing new to be an early adopter.

In 2014, the rap icon was part of a $ 50 million investment in Reddit, which valued the company at around $ 500 million at the time. Today, the platform is worth $ 15 billion, according to PitchBook data. He is also known for private investments in fintech companies such as Robinhood, Klarna and MoonPay, and for investments in the cannabis area. In 2015, just one year before weed was approved to be legalized for recreational use in California, Snoop co-founded Los Angeles-based Casa Verde Capital – a VC fund that has more than doubled in size.

These days, of course, everyone who follows him on Twitter knows that his attention has been consumed by everything and everything that has to do with Web3 – especially NFTs.

NFTs are unique digital assets, such as works of art and sporting goods cards, that are verified and stored using blockchain technology, but critics see them as overhyped and potentially harmful to the environment given the energy-intensive nature of cryptocurrencies. Many NFTs are built on the network behind the ethereum, the second largest token.

Earlier this year, Snoop announced plans to turn Death Row Records, a record company he bought from Blackstone-controlled MNRK Music Group, into an “NFT label.” Shortly afterwards, one of his first NFT collections called “Journey of the Dogg” saw a token sold at auction for over $ 100,000. In September, Snoop revealed that he had an alias known as the anonymous NFT art collector Cozomo de ‘Medici, who had a digital collection worth over $ 17 million.

“I know [NFTs] have a great opportunity to become big in music, because sooner or later the record companies have to come in, “Snoop told CNBC in an exclusive interview at last week’s NFT.NYC conference in New York City.” They will leave. to have to come home and sit at the table and understand that catalogs and things they keep are better served on the blockchain than to sit in the catalog and collect cobwebs. “

“And it’s not just labels,” added his son, Cordell Broadus, aka Champ Medici. “There are movie studios, there are technology companies, there are beverage companies … everyone is rushing to Web3 and they see how big Dogg is in space.”

Snoop has also spent the past year digging into the metaverse.

He recently partnered with the gaming platform The Sandbox to sell “The Snoopverse Early Access Pass” which gives buyers access to experiences in The Snoopverse, his own brand world within The Sandbox platform. There were 5,000 early access passes characterized by the use of blockchain technology at the time of launch. Each of them currently costs a little more than $ 600, and according to The Sandbox, there are currently 1,114 owners, which means that the sale has generated almost $ 700,000 – a significant haircut from the $ 1.7 million it had generated earlier in the year. The recent downturn has been called by many as the last “crypto winter”, and refers to a period in which crypto prices fall and remain low for a longer period.

“I feel like every major industry has a downfall,” Snoop said. “There’s been a depression in every industry you can look at … alcohol, tobacco, clothing, food; every industry you can imagine.”

Some leaders in the crypto industry expect a period of “creative destruction” that will wipe out many players. Mark Cuban, who has become a major investor in blockchain-based technologies, recently compared cryptocurrency to the “break that the internet went through” during the dotcom bubble and tweeted that there are too many imitators out there. Snoop Dogg has a similar view.

“This [crypto winter] weeded out all the people who were not meant to be in the room and who abused the opportunities that were there, he said. “Now it’s going to bring big business, and going forward, when the market comes back, there will only be good things to choose from,” he added.

Snoop’s latest project is a collaboration with Food Fighters Universe (FFU), which claims to be the world’s first NFT restaurant group. His ice cream brand, Dr. Bombay’s Sweet Exploration, will open in Los Angeles under the FFU umbrella. The brand was inspired by an NFT that Snoop owns from the prominent Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, many of which skyrocketed in price and became the most recognizable NFTs online, but have seen sharp price declines during the recent sale of digital currencies.

ApeCoin, a token launched by Bored Ape creators Yuga Labs, has seen a sharp increase since Snoop appeared on stage on NFT.NYC on Thursday night to debut a new single with Eminem, featuring the Bored Ape brand in the rap duo’s similar music video.

As is the case with many NFT collections, FFU token holders have exclusive access to various festivals, benefits and advantages via their ownership of one of the 10,000 NFTs in the collection. In addition, all physical restaurant locations that fall under the FFU umbrella will accept cryptocurrency as a method of payment.

FFU co-founder Kevin Seo told CNBC that it will be launched “by this year” and will be a dessert shop experience built around the Snoop Dogg community. Separately, Champ Medicis Bored Taco will continue to be a food truck and a ghost kitchen brand.

“We are excited to continue to create ways to use crypto as payment and demonstrate benefit through our Food Fighters Universe NFTs, with access to events and free food with our NFT holders,” said Seo.

“Web3 and NFTs? This is just the beginning,” Champ told CNBC. “People are going to look back on this in five years and see how innovative the Food Fighters Universe was and how we pushed the boundaries very early on when other people did not see the vision.”

While prominent investors continue to believe in the long-term potential of digital assets, including Cathie Wood of Ark Invest, there are many skeptics.

Bill Gates spoke at a TechCrunch lecture on climate change last week, describing the crypto and NFT phenomenon as something that is “100% based on larger fool theory”, referring to the idea that overvalued assets will go up in price when there are enough investors who are willing. to pay more for them.

Billionaire Microsoft’s co-founder joked that “expensive digital images of monkeys” would “improve the world enormously”, referring to the much-hyped Bored Apes.

Meanwhile, crypto-investors continue to struggle with aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes and a worsening liquidity crisis that has put major players in financial difficulties and given a megaphone to some of the biggest NFT skeptics. The wider area is also still swollen after the collapse of the $ 60 billion collapse of two major tokens last month.