You're creating a much safer environment for the end consumer, right? Because you can't protect against fakes in like the secondary Market in the current environment, like in and you see that over and over again on, you know, sites like eBay. I'm not sure how often it happens on stock X, but there is that issue of your be like, oh, did I buy the real product? But if it's coming directly from the manufacturer, but then it's still like open to trading in the secondary Market. It kind of gives that and consumer that knowledge that they could buy this.
This with confidence knowing that it's the real good. So
that was gee money. If you're on in Ft, Twitter, you've course no G money a very early investor in a whole slew of different entities, including buying a crypto Punk, ape in January for 140th. And at that time, that was just considered to be Insanity. Was the most paid in USD for crypto punk. I believe at that time. Now, it just looks like
Million investment. So he's one of the most well-respected collectors out there, but I got to say, as you get to know him personally, and I had a chance to hang with them out and FDNY. See, I can tell you firsthand. He is just an insanely, kind and thoughtful person. Obviously, that's the most important piece of all of this. On today's episode. We talked about his collection and his new collaboration with Adidas. He gives us the whole story of how that went down, which is just fascinating. Just great to have them on the show. This is g money.
Gee money. So good to have you on the show, man.
Hey Kevin. Thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. It's
cool. It's a finally do this together because, you know, I've got to know each other over video conversations and over Discord and things like that. It's funny. When I first heard about this guy Mike, who is this guy? G-money? What does that name? Come from? Like who is this guy? And then I met you I like oh, this is like the nicest guy ever and it really sharp when it comes to all things that have cheese, so I loved it.
Have you on the show? Because you are such a notorious well-respected collector and early, identifier of very important pieces of lenity side. So welcome and would love to just start off by getting your history, and how you got involved in this crazy space.
Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you for having me on. I know we've been late to your point is we've been speaking so much then, you know, I felt like this was probably a conversation that we would inevitably have on the air at some point. So thank you. Yeah, but yeah, so I come from traditional.
The finance I started following the stock market from a really young age. I was about 12 years old. When I, my grandmother, I asked her to buy me the Wall Street Journal Guide to Investing when they were, we were like at the bookstore,
dude. I had that exact kind of, not kidding you.
Yeah. Yeah. I remember telling her, I was like, oh, I'm gonna make so much money with this, and he was teaching you how to read like a stock table in the newspaper. It was my start, I learned how to do that. I was starting to follow stocks that like, whose companies I knew and yeah, I
Then following the market at a young age. I got an academic scholarship for, I went to private high school and I made a deal with my parents that the money that they would have spent on my tuition. They give to me to invest, and they said, yeah, because they were always supportive of whatever it is that I wanted to do, and that was in, like, 1996. I bought a couple stalks, that was the beginning of the.com bubble. I wrote it all the way up, and I didn't sell her share, and I wrote it all the way down.
You got to tell me what stocks you, but I'm curious 96.
Yeah, he but, you
know, so I bought xilinx. I'll loosen Microsoft and
Intel crazy, the a couple of those of you to hold on to him, you be sitting pretty right now.
Yeah, I mean, I think for the most part, I mean, three out of four companies that still exist from the.com bubble. Like I think that was pretty good. But I remember that those are my first for I specifically remember in silence because for a long time, I didn't really know what they did. Other than the fact that I remember, I was in the dentist office Reading, like, Popular Mechanics or something. And as I
It was they were talking about programmable semiconductor chips and I like that sounds cool. And I was like, 14, 15 and that was like, one of the things that I bought. So, I mean, it was a great experience, right? It was a great learning experience. I didn't sell anything at the top because I was like, I don't want to pay taxes. And it was really interesting because all these thoughts that I was having as, like, a young teenager were, were things that really helped me later on, in life, in figuring out trans and then, but also like decision-making, right?
Cuz I experienced that.com bubble. So I experienced what Euphoria was like and then obviously the consequential daughter. So that's what happened in 2008. I ended up going to college. I was about the University of in Boston. I also had an academic scholarship there and I made a deal with my parents and to take a portion of that tuition and and allow me to invest
it as awesome. I if I wish I had parents that
would let me do that. Yeah, I think it was because they saw that I was super passionate about it and I think
A kid, you know, I played sports but I wasn't ever as passionate about sports as I was about the market. So they just wanted to feed that intellectual curiosity and I'm forever grateful for that because they think a lot of those experiences that I had really early on. I have definitely helped me be successful later on in my career, especially when it comes to understanding like the market and the Dynamics of mass psychology and how that affects asset prices. Yeah. I think one thing
to touch on real quick, there is a you and I are in the same boat in that.
I had parents that also fed my curiosity. I think it's such an important thing for parents to do. You know, I was into computers. I was playing around with the old, kind of beat up computer at the house. I said, Dad. I want my own computer. He's like, they're too expensive and we ended up going on the classified ads. Back in the newspaper days and finding like a used Packard Bell 286 and buying it and bringing it home and he put it in my room and like that forever changed, just my interest. So yeah, it went from playing video games to learning the dos.
You know? And so it was that just like nudge and he saw that, oh, gosh. Is this something that even though it's outside of like our price range? It's worth the investment because I know long-term this is the future and he was very good Denna find that something you had very supportive parents in the same way and it's something I hope to
replicate. Yeah, it's funny. You mention that just now because I thought about that a lot where I currently don't have any children, but I hope that when I do, I'm conscious enough to realize those small decisions could really affect.
Their lives in a positive manner like down the road in ways that I can't even imagine.
Right? So right. Absolutely to your
point is, I remember man. I think I was like 12 years old. The first time we got like a computer in the house. Like I remember me my mom and my dad sitting around like the dining room table or wherever it was that, we set it up and just trying to figure out, like, how does this thing work? Yeah.
It was a mystery. It came with big thick, manuals and everything. And I think that's part of why I wanted to learn it is because nobody else could figure it out.
Out to me. I was like I'm going to be the one to figure this out, you know, it was like there's something cool about that. But so, you know, you were going down the the road of traditional Finance. It would be probably pretty easy for you just to be on Wall Street today, you know, being some hedge fund manager or something. What was the turn at? What point did you say? Oh, I'm all about crypto and I need to get into this
universe. Yeah. So basically, when I graduated from college, I went to work with my dad in the family owned business and after working with him for three years. He said
Dad. This is a way you're passionate about your passion about Spock's, go do something with the stock market. I was 24 25 in the lake. I'm so old Who's Gonna Wanna hire me the, the idiocy of my youth? But ultimately, like, I decided that I had success investing before that point, one of my like biggest Investments up until this year, that highest Roi percentage was I remember I was interning in the city going into my senior year of college, and I was sitting on the subway and I noticed that everybody.
These white headphones in their ears. And this is s 2003 and the MP3 Market was still massively fragmented. And I was like, oh, that was the original iPod and I bought Apple calls. I don't know what the price is now split adjusted, but at the time, I bought the 20-dollar calls when it was trading at $10 for like Woody to censor 68 cents each and I sold them for 48 dollars each within a year and a half. That's amazing. And I realized that like throughout time. Is that one of the things that I'm really good at it.
Is Pickering out. Consumer Trends pretty early as there's beginning to catch on and that was time. And again throughout my career. I've been able to kind of see something a little bit earlier than most and capitalize on it. And I decided at that point in 2007 that I could either go the traditional investment banker hedge fund route, or I can go somewhere because I had these good long-term ideas, but I needed to learn and figure out how to generate money on the short term. So I'm like, you know what? I'm going to put money up in a prop.
Urban learn how to trade and I decided to go down that route that was right at the beginning of the financial crisis. I think I started treating full-time, maybe a month or two before country rides wet started with its troubles and and right before it's bankruptcy and I traded the financial crisis. I've been trading ever since then and then I learned about Bitcoin maybe in 2012. I don't remember the exact year, but I remember the price it was like in the mid-20s and it was breaking out on like I was trying to figure out how to buy it.
I couldn't figure out how to buy it. And then I went straight to a thousand bucks and then a pullback to 200. And I was like, oh it's tulips. That was the bubble and then I didn't look at it again for years. Sometimes a date posted on Zero Hedge and I'd read an article or two on there, but I wasn't really that interested in it. And then when I moved to Puerto Rico and 2017, I noticed that the price was back above thousand dollars and people were telling me that they were making money trading Bitcoin. So me being a student of price action.
And if the prices back up here, and it's holding that significant, right, so, maybe I should start delving in a little more ad. That's when I went down the rabbit hole. I discovered etherium, and to me a theory was way more interesting than Bitcoin was because of all the smart contract, programming, and everything. And I went down the Ico rabbit hole, and I think I caught the mid to late cycle of the Ico. Booming, in q1 of 2018. I remember standing around at a conference and being like, you know, it just
I did me so much on 1999, early 2000. You could just feel the Euphoria and it was great because people wanted to build the like, the ideas were terrible. And so I was like, blockchain take is incredible and it's going to change the world who are still super early. I was using the.com parallel where the.com bubble came and then, it took about 10 years for like, kind of the promises of it to get built and like the internet that we know, today was built ten years later. So I was like, all right, Tech moves faster.
Be worth five to seven years away. So I'll be back because I still had a good Equity trading business. So I was like, I'm going to go back and write out the bear market trading equities and then in q1 of 2020 when the fed and central banks around the world, started bailing out, everybody and printing money, you know, that was my first aetherium by like, literally the day. Jerome Powell had that press conference and I had a couple of adjustments I made last cycle that were unlocking and I went down the defy rabbit hole.
And I was like, holy shit, they built stuff way faster than I thought here attack was working and I was re cutting my teeth and defy was listening to podcasts, reading Twitter lurking in telegram chats with people much smarter than me and just learning like the tack and everything that was happening. And it wasn't until defies summer cool down in august-september. That I finally got around to entities. I ain't heard about entities up until that point, but I was still so busy.
Yield farming, and making sure that the contract doesn't get hot going to like the highest rewards and all that stuff that I didn't necessarily really have time. And that once I found entities, that was my second, holy shit. While many crypto, the first time was the first time I use, are they being able to take a collateralized loan with no kyc and under five minutes to me. I was like, this is Gonna Change the World and when I found an st is I was like, this is everything that I've been looking for Adam. The first day of quarantine. I bought a PlayStation
And I downloaded Fortnight. I hadn't played a video game in over 10 years, but I said to myself, the only way I'm gonna survive quarantine is, I can't just watch Netflix. I have to occupy myself with video Gibbs and I start playing Fortnight. I play with my friends and their 12 year, old nephews. And the first question that these kids ask me, is what skins did you buy? And I'm like, I'm not buying in skins. This game is free to play. There's no, am spending money on this game, right? And then fast forward two or three weeks. I'm like, oh, that, that skin is cool.
That dance is called and buying all this stuff and it was dead and there that I was like, oh my God, there's this massive super cycle. Here of that kid is 12 years old today. In 10 years. He's going to be 22. He's gonna have his own discretionary income and his gym, be totally okay with a totally digital asset at the time, like Roblox and unity were publicly traded companies. So as an equities Trader, I was like, I don't know how I can take advantage of this yet. But his something I'm going to keep an eye out for and then when I found out of T is 0,
I was like, oh, this is your skim and crypto Twitter and this makes sense. And that's when I just went down the rabbit hole and I was I was like that killing myself ever since going deep in the community and being part of the community ever since that,
what was your first and ft project that you discover? What was the aha moment for you? Probably when you realize what the technology was, that's a huge one, right? But what about like a love? Did you find something where you're like, I just love this. I need to own this. What was your first purchase? The first
one?
So I'd say, honestly, it didn't happen till I bought my crypto Punk. My I bought a zombie was the first Punk that I bought but that took a couple months. So like when I first started going down the end of T rabbit. On the way, I discovered them was somebody sharted a Founder crypto Kitty, a gen zero founder on if tax and somebody was shelling it on Twitter and being like, oh, this is a quick 2 or 3x and I was like, all right, cool. I'll buy a percentage of the shards. I didn't know.
Anything really about it. Other than just accounts talking about it. I'm like, yeah, and this was like, defy summer. We're like everything was going up. So I bought it and immediately without 50%, and that's what I was like. All right. So what did I actually buy here? I decided to buy people out by. I could either sell it for a huge loss, or I could turn around and buy people out or get bought out at that same price, because it was a shock adoption. And so I decided that I would mess around with the project and the tack, and I would buy it.
That's how I started getting into the end of T world.
Just out of curiosity. When you were looking at Punk's, take us back to that time. What was the zombie going
for Robbie? The first stop me. I bought was twenty thousand dollars crazy and am time. Yeah, change in time the change incredibly. But like, the crazy thing is, when I first saw Punk's I was like no, I want to buy the next box and write I was on the search for that. There were a couple projects where I would go in and sweep the floor and people like whoa, whoa, like don't buy so much and I was
Like a whale that I'd be buying five thousand dollars worth of the project that people like, dude, slow down, like don't put all your eggs in one basket. You know, I have a set amount that I wanted out keep some space. And I remember when I found our blocks and I was like, okay, I'm going to meet the bunch of crummy squiggles and there wasn't a match function for missing and I couldn't find the Discord. I literally just went to the website and I was just missing squiggles for like an hour, you know, I was sitting in front of my computer screen just
Mid think about knitting and then afterwards, I go to, you know, check my discords of the other groups that I was in and somebody recognized my wallet and they sent me the link from another Discord and they're like, here this way you're looking for and I go in there and I noticed, like, people were going nuts because I think at the time, the number was around 1700 1750, and I was looking at the, from a number wise, unlike. Okay, some of these could be historically significant or people might want historically significant numbers. And so I was like, let me just
Collect these years and I'm like, I'm going to Mid from like here to like 2100 and I just went Ali Khan emitting spree. And then like I saw afterwards. People were just going to stay like, oh my God, I have to run home because I didn't think that we'd get to this number and really quick. It was kind of nice to see how people are reacting. But then like, after all the missing snow for odms me, or it was deemed or in the public, charity goes do a dyke. Don't spend so much money on squiggles one and two, if you're going to spend this kind of money, you need to buy at least as on.
And then over the next two days, he proceeded to read till the on crypto pounce him in a country guys. Yeah, then I finally got it. I was like, okay cool and I brought the zombie and then I was on the lookout for an 84 I think was about a month or so ago. So I finally was able to find a bait that was for sale, but that was kind of like my origin story and how it all went down.
How many Chrome is squiggles. Did you end up minting
intoa? It was I think it's a little over 250. I think it's
92 or something. I still. Do you still have these? Yeah, I haven't sold one. I haven't sold any yet.
Wow. That is just insane. I'm, I was just on your Open Sea page and you have three the 3300 over 3,300. In ftc's,
most ideal. Just what most of those are things that people send out. A lot of them are just random projects that that puts stuff in my wallet.
Gotcha. So what would you say in terms of that your own Collectibles? It must be at least a couple thousand at this point though, right?
Or it's, I
They probably it's between 1000 and 1500 of my stuff that I've minted in collected.
What do you think about the different platforms? When you look to collect? I mean, it looks as clear that you've done everything from generative, just pfp stuff to someone of ones. What's your investment thesis? Here? I like what you said about squiggles and I'm in the same boat project zero. Our blocks makes a ton of sense. Everybody has to own a Squig, right? That's why I don't have to earn 50, but I have to go. I have eight or
something I guess but you know
there is enough.
Not so crazy world. Where these are in the hundreds of thousands. If not a million dollars per Squig in sometime 10, 15 20 years from now. So I think that is historically significant and I'm a big fan of doing just that collecting those types of pieces. I put punks in that category. Obviously, I would say, Apes is made the jump over to that category of being kind of a blue-chip. Historically significant. Would you agree
with that? Yeah. Yeah. I think it started happening really early on. When you started seeing how that Community just got real strong, it with Bill viral very quickly.
Yeah, what else do you
put in that camp? I think for me, Otto glyphs Falls in that camp. What else in the is in terms of like old-school, original first to do it gonna have to hold these. What? I
think one of my biggest mrs. I think was not buying an x copy when I could. Mmm. That's one that I think you own one, right? I think you pop art.
Yeah. I've got like, four or five now, which is crazy. The 10 ones. I think I only have three, right? I mean ex-cop. He's just like he's the banks of the crypto world is no doubt.
You know, I remember seeing his stuff and being like, Oh,
I'll wait, I'll wait and see that. The same thing happened to me with auto Glimpse. I was like I'll wait when the for was like a 10 or 15 or something and like I'll wait for these to come in and that they never came in. And then I finally followed into one at I think 55 around there, but I wasn't able to do that with the ex-cop because I think as I was beginning to look at them, I think 4156 came in and started sweeping the floor and I, you know, I was like fuck, I'm like, I think I missed it for now, but that he his
collection is just insane. Yeah, it's just
Nuts. What are their projects? Did you identify early that? That by definitely a tribute? Just a nervous on? Oh, right. Like that was one that you put on the map. Is that not
right? Yeah. It's so like his story was is incredible. Being able to the way we met and the way we first started a where he wanted to sell me the entire collection as one piece of 100 for a hundred thousand dollars, and we were we spoke on the phone for an hour of the first time. We spoke and this is back. I think there's like in February Late Show.
Early February and I was like, listen, I think you're gonna sell these way faster. Keep the physical part, just make these into 100 different pieces sold for 1,000 bucks. And I think he'll be faster and I expected him to come back to me and like two or three months and be like, hey, dude, I sold it out. Thanks. Thanks so much. He came back to me like two or three days and was like, dude. I sold out is fun gray and I like, oh man that the congratulations and then to see everything that he's done in the space since then.
Is mind-blowing, right? Like I'm a super fan of Justin and he even though I was one of I I think about five or six that I minted, and I thought that when I was buying them, I was like, oh, like I was, I saw is not as an investment. It was more like. Hey, if I get your help on board this photographer that can help onboard other people from the Contemporary Art World dead. To me. That's like a wit, like I didn't admit to those or 1,000 bucks each and I didn't expect to make money any time suit on them. And so,
And I think it was like a month or two later. He hits me up his hey there. I wanna connect you to this collector, that wants to buy a piece from your collection. And I think that first one was like a five and a half feet or something. Then the next one was I get 10 and then at 15 and then 20 and then at one point I was like, just not, I don't want to sell any more who I usually don't say. Oh like the most I've sold percentage of my collection is Justin's pieces because he's come to me like a. Like I really want the hundred pieces to be in 100 different hands.
Am I going? Okay, fine. So I started selling stuff off and you know, I sold some obviously very early, but it was because he was asked me to do so. And I know what she was doing to build his community and the stuff that he's done since then has been incredible. So like I don't regret any of it.
Yeah. He's probably one of the best networkers that I know in terms of just making new connections, like serious bonds and friendships with people via and building Community. I don't know anyone's better building community. So it's been really cool to see what he's done in the launch of, you know, his own.
Platform Quantum art, which focuses at least initially on photography, based in FTS has been fun to watch as well. Have you purchased any of the quantum art drops?
I did the first shop with the mid pass and I've been watching had just been, I've been so busy over the last couple of weeks with this and if he event that we just hosted down here and also working on the collaborations that that were just recently announced. But I mean, I doubt I was a seat Ambassador, and I talked to Justin all the time and with regards to strategy and trying to figure things out but like
He him and Jonas run a really tight ship and I'm super stoked of what they're doing
yet. Before we get further into your question because I would love to talk more about that. I think now's a great time to talk about just what you've been up to on the nft side. You've got some pretty big announcements that you want chat about. Today. You tell me what you've been
building. I had been working on on this Evita's collaboration since the exact date is like mid-april or something. I posted something on Twitter and
Somebody DMV and he told me that he worked at an Adidas and I'm like, okay, finally, he's and that he'd like to talk and so to me I was like, all right. It doesn't hurt to take a 15-minute call. I don't know how true this guy is or what his position is within the organization. But what if it really is Adidas, taking this seriously, and so we hopped on a phone call. And this was super like, it wasn't even like an official Adidas thing that they wanted to do is just head. He's part of the community. He
Super stoked on ftas, he was deep into wet three, just like me. And he happened to work at Adidas, and for the first six or eight weeks that we were talking. I didn't even know if he actually worked at Adidas because he never emailed me from the, the domain we would chat chat and we have these long conversations and I was like, oh man, these do it out in the trying to push us internally and like
this because gonna ride you or something. Yeah. He must have your guard up
right night. I had, I had my guard up but also understanding the fact that I, if I want an
To go mainstream. Like we have to get that adoption. And a lot of that adoption comes from Brands and people that are very influential in the real world. Right? Like, it's not going to be purely organic and grass roots, that's part of it. But really, it is like getting these bigger brains and bald and helping them come into really authentic way. So, we were talking and discussing a couple weeks 5 Milli. He sends me a email from the Adidas.com delayed and I'm like, okay, cool. And least. I know he definitely
Early works there, but I don't know what his position is, right. She could be an intern for all I know. And so we start talking and at this point I think pucks comic and poured age started entering the picture, the conversation initially began before those two projects even existed. Like they they started I hate their mints were like in May and my conversations with been over at Adidas started in mid-april. And so it was just like super organic because it wasn't like, okay what's going to be a Dida strategy and and this and that and it was just a
Angel conversation where I would talk with him, we would shoot the shit on like brainstorming and ideas and what the possibilities might be. And then in Late July, I happen to be in Europe and he was like, hey, why don't you come to Adidas headquarters and talk to some senior members at Adidas? And I was like, okay, I'm definitely going to do that. And it was just so funny because here I am. I was on a train. I was traveling. This was after eat CC. I'm traveling from Paris to to
Berg and by never bid tuner Bergen by get there and I like still I have my guard up a little bit because I've only chatted with him on the phone II. Didn't know, you know,
it is tell me he was the CEO or something, right?
You want would like to see everybody. He was senior enough that he was being able to use able to push stuff internally and I think him there was a couple other people within the organization. There were also involved in an F. He is and what 3? And that also, they found their tribe internally and
The making that push and when I went to this meeting I saw the interest that was happening from like the senior level execs internally and I left and I was like, holy shit. Like this might happen like this could be real. Also, knowing the fact that large organizations work very slowly that could this be real this year or could it be real in 18 months at read more
thing to keep five years from now. Yeah,
because they're like that. And that was the thing that the struggle was having then at first.
As quickly as they wanted to move or having to deal with legal and compliance and security and all these other things to make sure that that things would be happening, even though not totally within normal guidelines, like a sticking to the guy lines as much as they possibly could. So it was definitely an experience, but I will say working with them has been an incredible experience because they were definitely open to feedback hopping Encore weekly calls with the partners and being like, what do you guys think of this?
What'd you guys think of that? Doing? The nft is on aetherium is, you know, probably one of the biggest pros and yeses. Because I think one of the things that, that, you see a lot of, like, organizations as they come into the space, they're like, oh, we're going to work on the side chain because there they have some sort of Deal or they're giving us something or whatever. But it's just not crypto native who go to where the real fan bases. And so I think that they were really thoughtful in their approach with their initial foray into the space, and I'm super excited.
Paid to see what they're coming up with next.
You got to tell me what they're doing. So what? Okay, you sit down at the table. They're obviously I've been in a few of these in a few related meetings, but it's similar things. Where when I was in the Heyday of web to you, get all these big corporations to like Hey Kevin come in here and they educate its on web to you know, I feel like a lot of big corporations love to do those little dog-and-pony shows where you come in and present like the future. So you go in there. You sit down, you tell him about it empties, you bring them up to speed. What did
Collaboration ultimately end up being and what did it morph into? And how did you help guide that
process? So yeah. So basically me as a big nft Advocate and wanting to push the space forward. I will I'm not interested in the logo done in the some special artwork. That is that's lame and that's not something that like I would want to collect. So I was like, all right, what would be like, how can we get physical merchandise like to these entities? And that what I
I was like trying to push for day one and that's what ended up happening, right? There's basically the nft drop is one nft that you can purchase and that gives you access to buy three different physical products over the course of the next, I think, say 12 to 18 months. And so the first one that is redeemable is a black hoodie. That is if you take a look at my profile picture is the hoodie that's that. I'm wearing in that where it has the
Enhanced that has an Easter egg and Easter egg message in there.
That's awesome. I didn't know what that was. It's a really cool shot, by the way.
Yeah, that was really cool. And there, they put the Easter egg in there and I think somebody's founded, 14, 15 minutes. So the, the message actually reads. GN wag me. And I believe it says like from Adidas or something, but that, it basically GM and wag me were, like, I was like, yeah, I'm like, this is, this is so, and ft - I love it. And like I said, they've been really open.
Open to working working with the community. And I think it shows, right?
So you when you get this one in AT&T, how many in total worth, will there be
minted? There's going to be 30,000 total,
and will they all look the exact same? Or they'll be a little bit different or how does.
So they're all going to be a exact same, think of it as almost like a membership card,
right? Yes, of utility, ft and
sense. Yep. So they're going to be a love that they're 11:55 and then each time you redeem for the physical, the the picture will change so that like when he gets
Hold on our Market places, you can see if it's been
redeemed. So if I do nothing over those, 18 months, ours is something crazy going to happen to that initial in of tea did, is there any type of game within the game here that we're not thinking
about? I don't know. I am not exactly sure to all of Adidas his plans, but I do know what they're at least for this project. And this drop is mostly just too late, the physicals to the end of T. So the hoodie
He was going to be the first redeemable item. Then the second redeemable item will be the yellow Firebird tracksuit. And then the third redeemable item is going to be the orange Bean. That's awesome.
That's really interesting because is it, there's this price Discovery piece of it, right? Where I have a feeling this was coming for a long time. I think, you know, socks was the the interesting one where they even though it was just socks and it was silly and I know it got hyped up a ton. There was something very interesting about this idea that
Sell the inventory first and then you let the secondary Market decide what the price is and freely trade without you actually having to ship physical product. Right? So, what I mean by that, is it just for the listeners that aren't completely aware as okay. Let's just say ideas. You sell 30,000 days, empties. They sell out. Of course, they will. And then, you know, someone is, like, Kosh. I really want one of these, but I remember, 30,000 won. Well, guess what? You have to go to the secondary market. And it may be double the price of the initial sale, maybe triple, maybe last
You just never know. So the price Discovery happens on the secondary market and involves over time in real time. Over many days and weeks and months that there's you said, 18 months for the entire project. So it's just a fun
experiment. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that's like I said, that's what's really intriguing to me is being able to work with a brand like, Adidas. That so culturally relevant and is obviously a household name everywhere around the world to me. It's like one, it shows that it proves to a wider audience.
Lefties are here to stay and that it's not just a flash in the pan. But to it's like a use case of hey, it's here's a use case outside of Art. And what are other brands going to be doing to push the space forward and coming in? And not only an authentic way but also in a way that pushes the space into new areas. Yeah.
Once that empty is held as long as it's not burned in any way. Doesn't sound like that's what's happening here. You can imagine my decade from now, Adidas does a tenure, you know, anniversary of this initial and ft.
Drop in offers that set those same in a few holder, something really special, right? There's no like limit to what could be done here over time, which I think is just going to be a ton of fun to see how you either collect. This thing as a Diaz first drop or you combine them. Or I was talking to Mike Shinoda about this and obviously, these are really obvious mechanics. You go to ten concerts you hold 10 unique and FTS, you combine them and now you have a VIP backstage pass, right? There's all kinds of fun stuff at play here. That's what the blockchain that helps prevent fraud, which is
awesome.
And I think the interesting thing is, you can just, you can also start with no game plan. And you can just be like, hey, like right, we're just going to start, and if you like the Adidas product that much you can collect it and you can own it. There's no promise or guarantee of anything in the future. But if let to your point is they're like, hey like ten year anniversary holders, you get a special edition Waggy t-shirt or something because right, you've been there since the beginning and there's just so much optionality that you have again to what you're sayings without having to worry about.
About people trying to like take advantage of the system of luck.
Yeah. That's why I how I can't think about the proof Collective entity that I'm doing. It's just an open-ended adventure for you to go run and play with. This is really cool. The other thing I like about it too is it's proven provenance, right? You know what you're actually getting verified Goods directly from Adidas. There's a world in the not too distant future, where we stop seeing those lines of kids lining up at the Supreme store, waiting around the block only to buy the merchandise.
Box it up, put it back on eBay or not even eBay, but you know, this secondary stock X and all these other sites, sell it. And then you may or may not have to deal with fraud and that case because there's some people that say that they actually bought the drop when they didn't they make fake merchandise that there's something so cool about the Redemption happening at the manufacturer level.
Yeah. Yeah, and I think to that point is, you're creating a much safer environment for the end consumer, right? Because you can protect against fakes in like the secondary.
It in the current environment. Like in a you see that over and over again on, you know, sites like eBay. I'm not sure how often it happens on stock X, but there is that issue of your be like, oh did I buy? Like the real product but it is coming directly from the manufacturer, but then it's still like open to trading in the secondary Market. It gives that and consumer that that knowledge that they could that they can buy this with confidence knowing that it's the real good. Yeah, and I think this is
going to apply to physicals just going forward in general High net, high-dollar items.
There could be
a world where and I've dealt actually worked with and been to the manufacturer yet, Rolex of my days at her dinky, but they're very slow moving, so they might be the one to do it, but they're good example, Rolex, could in theory issue an mft with every new Rolex and and buyers eventually will demand that. I received that nft when you sell me that used Rolex because that's proven that you always demand that the transfers with the actual watch and if it's uncoupled from the watch then.
You undervalue or don't value the watch as much, because there may be some something about the. It's dead, says it, it could be fake or might have bad internal components, or whatever. It may be. So there's something about that coupling of physical and digital. That gets really interesting in a world where everyone's phone just by default supports those types of
transfers. Yeah. Yeah. And to that point is, I really do think that the luxury goods Market is probably one of the next verticals to start getting disrupted, because of all the things that
You just mentioned. Yeah, I'd love to go into that as well. But do you have any other drops that are in the works?
Now? I to me, I am still deciding what I want to do exactly what the G Bunny brand long-term, but I do know that I had a very good experience working with Adidas and I want to be working with other companies that want to be coming into the space and want to come in and in a very crypto native way that are want to be part of the community, and not see it as like
Just an opportunity to make money. I think the opportunities to make money will be there. But I think it will be there for people for the brands and the companies that come in a really authentic way. Yeah,
you own, the domain name, g dot money, which is just amazing. I have no idea how you got that. But that is, is that the kind of the place to go, where people put them their email address and then get notified when you have new stuff, that you're
announcing G that money as well as on my Twitter g-money nfte. That's where I usually tweet, most of my thoughts. But yeah, I'm still trying to decide what
Out, I want to go with regards to platforms of building like a Discord server or something along those lines. I just I feel like I don't have a need for one just yet. But I'm thinking about what path I want to take long term and that route.
Yeah, it's there's a there's so many different Avenues. You could go considering the kind of pretty massive brand that you've built. I'm curious when you're looking at it and have teased these days were a whole year into this kind of crazy chaos that really kicked off anywhere in it before that, but I would say that the real crazy stuff. Sorry.
It happened in January of this year in terms of the adoption that we're seeing today. What do you we see more pfp projects more 10,000. We see some utility stuff. We see some being tied to physical are. Now we've got Justin's doing is photography and of teas and those are becoming hotter. Are there other verticals that were missing or ones that you're looking at? We are like, okay. This is a new space. We got the metaverse. We haven't really talked about are the things that you're now investing in that you think are going to be the next big thing, you know, six, eight, twelve months from now.
Yeah, so I think I feel like right now, we see a lot of the plate, or odd games. And that's been picking up saying the stuff that I find the most interesting to me at the moment is one photography to your point, because I feel like all the things that were in place for generative art, also apply to photography which regards to understanding the artist provenance. Making sure that they don't make more than the prince of they say, right. Like all those things that I think helped make our generative art in our block. Successful can also be applied to
photography. So I'm super interested there. And the real stuff that I'm looking at is leaking physical Goods to digital because I just think that it's not going to be an overnight switch from all physical to All Digital. It's going to be a gradual move over time, where first, we're going to have physical digital link to each other and I even will, we live in a more Digital World. There was still always be a need for physical product because we're all humans. So I think that to me, those are the parts that I find the most interesting at the moment. And I'm
He's on the lookout for people doing cool new things with nft. Is that like I didn't even think about it because I very much believe everything in the real world doesn't end of T. So they will all be coming on Shane at some point. So as these markets come into the world. These are going to be just new use cases for entities are, is there anything that
you're currently buying now or things that you've done in the last like few weeks or a couple months were, it does fall in those domains? You just
mentioned there.
He's been like a couple, I guess BC Investments that I've been making a couple dollars. I've been very much taking a wax. I think valuations are starting to get a little ahead of themselves at this point. I'm sure you could probably agree from the pitches that you're seeing. So I'm trying to be a little more, a little pickier about what I I want to be investing in from like a angel investment perspective.
The how about on the art side on the? Is there any new up-and-coming artists that you found recently that you really enjoy or any new pfp projects?
I think are more
durable the pfp projects. I generally stay away from stuff. I do I'd say the last thing I really missed it in science was crypto codes because I just I felt like that they were a more accessible version of nails. So I'm it in a bunch of them. I don't plan on selling them anytime soon, but with regards like Newman's I generally try to wait until the community is a little more established because I also know people follow my wallet so I don't want to make
Maybe because I want to make something like all cool. Like I like the art or something, but I know we'll end up causing some foam mold from people that are tracking. What I'm doing with regards to artist at this point. I really like it. Just if I see something that I really like, I will try to contact the artist and try to see if maybe I could commission something or buy something that I like or I think now especially after being in our Basel recently, there's a lot of people from the traditional art world that want to come into the space.
Is so it's really cool about being able to see like their past history of work and then be like, okay, like, how can I help you? Come into the space and how can I be a collector? So I think more keep an eye out for people that had been already successful in the traditional, our space, as they're trying to come into the nft space. When you
say that you sit back and enjoy it with some of these other projects. You wait. And look at the discords and you cook for traction. What are you looking for? You're looking for, kind of the
The audience that sticks around and has like have a lasting Community or looking for projects with a deep roadmap, you looking projects for with a lot of lore associated with them. Like when you see something new and you're visually attracted to it, is that enough to pull the trigger for you or do you have to at least check a couple of their boxes in your mind, in terms of what type of community they've built? How do you think about
that? And it really comes down to how big the investment is. If it's a couple thousand dollars. I late no matter what.
But it's a larger investment. Like I'll take some time for instance. I think probably the last thing I ate then was Wolfgang and it was just and I think I might have bought the copper or pretty close to the top. But to me it was I saw like everybody was talking about it on Twitter. Some people that I follow on Twitter that that trade these things pretty well door or get involved into these games pretty early. We're talking about it. So I'm like, alright, I'll throw something at it. It seems fun. I like like The Lure of it and like the whole game mechanics and two meals worth buying some
Um, I think with all these projects, like, even in the when you look at, when you zoom out even like water waves and crypto funks. They're still only four years old. So we're still so early in everything. So, if a project comes out, even more tapes, what it's a less than a year old, what they've been able to achieve in that time, is incredible to me. I can't sit there and judge something by its long-term roadmap. Because I, the way I am collecting and investing in entities at the moment is if these things
Going to be historically significant over time. They're going to be worth way more than whatever they're worth now. And so for that reason like I want to buy them and hold them and hopefully not have to sell them or look at them for like at least ten years and then at that point the side and be like, okay would do I still want to hold it from that point in time and and make the decision? Then?
Yeah, that makes it makes a lot of sense. I'm curious when you think about these, you mentioned earlier brands that do it in an authentic way, you like to see that.
When it happens, are there any other brands that are doing in of teas and an authentic way
that you would because for me
Brands I get scared. I'm like just seems like a money play. I don't know big Brands doesn't fit. The Degen punk rock Vibe of what's going on, oftentimes, like anybody else doing this, right?
I feel like what we're seeing right now is this is like the quiet period as the brands are making their scramble to like, okay, what are entities and how do we get involved? I think the things we've seen for the most part.
Haven't been that. Great right. Like making an mft, a picture of a McRib, isn't the coolest thing in the world and I'm not interested in that. But I think at like, what be sad and I thought was pretty cool, right? Buying a crypto Punk to Signal. Hey, like we at least understand it. Right? Right. I'd like to see them do more but I think that's a good start. You don't him say
so less about them. Producing a more about them. Like a tip of the hat like where we get it, work laying in the space.
Yeah, and I think that's what Adidas is doing. I don't know what there.
Long-term plans are with the space, but I have to assume that they have a grander vision and this is just their way of say hey, we're here we make apparel. Like let's do something cool for the crypto and the NSE community and then they can work on their broader vision from there. Yeah, when you look at
your portfolio, I have this problem as well where it is, not really a problem. He's like, you look at it. You're like gosh, I feel like that's really undervalued. That should be worth. Way more you get into something that you're really passionate.
Firstly, passion about but he hasn't quite taken off. Is there anything that you could look at in your Holdings, where you're just like, this should be big or eventually? I hope it will
be big. I think there's two, I would say coincidentally, they're two of my bigger positions is, I'd say cromie squiggles and Singularity both on our blocks.
Yeah, I agree. 100% with chromium squiggles. I have a couple of the creature worlds. Are you familiar with that project? Yeah. Yeah.
Those are cool. Yeah,
I think they're cool and they're just like, if you
look back at the artist and the stuff that he's done in the past. It's like legitimate artist. And I just feel like that those to me. They just feel they feel undervalued. This is an investment advisor, any of us, by the way for those, let's hang.
No, but what do you think about him in terms of platforms? You put a premium on
stuff that when it shows up on super rare because they do have such a high bar for allowing artists in.
Not really, I don't think I've haven't collected that much on super rare.
Or any of those the one one of one platforms. Generally, when I like an artist's art, I try to connect to them directly and then see ask them what they're working on and see if I can get involved. That's what ended up happening with Kat Simard was I saw her stuff, her stuff came up on my Twitter and I like, oh man, like these photos are like super dope. So I reached out to her directly and she was like, hey, I have a crazy idea and she pitched me on the free Hawaii photo and I was like, yeah, let's do it and she did an auction and I
I just bid the reserve price, the minimum, so that it would sell and I was I wanted to buy it and night. Nobody, it just so happened that day. I believe a theory was tanking, so nobody was in the mood to buy annuities and I ended up winning it. But like that to me is like and I the re I love that piece because I think it's has been able to spark a really good conversation around CCO and especially with a garsik photography and I think it made her a really good and loud voice and Community de to start that
conversation.
Yeah, yeah, that's it seems to me like just hearing some of the stuff that you've done that you have done a bunch of just one-on-one. You, you seems like you reach out, you talk to the artists like so many people and I do this as well. Maybe it's because we're in a very privileged position to have a decent following to where they'll listen, but it's one of those things where yeah, you can buy on secondary. But oftentimes these artists if you reach out and you say,
hey, would you do
something unique for me? It can I come?
Mission something from you, they'll do it. Have you found that that's the
case. Yeah. I don't think I've done that many commissions per se, but I do I like to reach out to them to like a is what are you working on? And how like, how can we do something cool together? Because that's me. I always want to be doing cool stuff with cool people and like, artists are amazing creators or some of the coolest people in the world. When I see something I like I'm like, all right, like I see your point is I feel very privileged that I can DM somebody and most likely get a response in the nft space. Oh,
Me, I'd like, all right, cool. If I have this access and I want to do something cool at them. Like what can we do together? And start that conversation?
What's your thoughts on? Just other chains? I would say the number one obviously like hen ecosystem object tasos is kind of the second to Theory. Mm. You know, you poke around over there or
do you avoid that altogether? So I'm in a doubt that by some n of T is on tasos, but I haven't personally collected anything on there.
Yet. But I have some exposure through a dowel that's investing in there and I do own a few Solana and at peace. Not so cool. But I own a couple. I'm I, I'm still up in the air on whether Solana and of teams take off because they think the quality of the artwork on. There hasn't been the best up until this point, but I do think that if Solana has a chain is going to scale and become very user-friendly than I think you have to at least have some exposure there too. So on.
Enough teeth. Do you recall the top your head? Which Solana nft as you
hold? Yep. I have a DJ in the hip and I have some Solana Monkey Business.
DJ nab's are so cool-looking.
Yeah. I actually like the salon unlucky business more.
Oh, so the Solana might be the lady of characters that like different
have Subs are amazing. Yeah. I hadn't seen these. Yeah. So I like those. I think I might have bought the top of the last I think I bought when the floor is like almost 300 or something. So I think I'm underwater on that. But to me, that's just like a long-term play.
That if Solana let's say like really scales. And so on and of teeth become a really big and huge thing, then those probably go up. I, I'm always, I'm always it's I think a lot of I'm then I buy most of all most, all of my stuff on aetherium, but I've always trying to make be cognizant that I'm not in eith Maxi and be like, okay? Like there is a world where there's a multi-chain future, right? Even when you look at the.com bubble in 1997, lycos was the number one, search engine in the world.
Then right? You know, now it doesn't exist. So it's trying to be Kyle to be like, hey, aetherium is number one right now, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's guaranteed its place in history. So because of that, I feel like I need to stay loose with my thinking and being like understanding that other chains could end up picking up and making sure that I have exposure to that when it does happen.
Yeah. I'm in the same boat. I think the etherium is certainly not going anywhere anytime soon. And some of these side chains will and and Layer Two.
Choose will help alleviate some of the congestion but that said these are just databases right then. And are we still running my SQL and Oracle? Some people are but not Hearts, right? So it's just, you know, I kind of put through that lens as well. It's speaking of polygons and and some of the layer to stuff. You know, I get airdrops so much polygon just random stuff. Have you ever bought a polygon? Nft? Or does it just seem like it's just for the freebie
stuff.
Haven't interacted that much on polygon. I think I might, I'm trying to think of my my DG wearables. I think my DJ wearables are on the etherium, but they might be on polygon. I'm not sure, but I haven't really attracted all that much. A polygon to be honest.
Yeah, same II just, for me.
It's discuss a few
hurdles still and it's funny. I have it's messy. I think it's our, it's definitely out by the time, people are hearing this. I had that one of the cofounders of polygons on the podcast on Modern finance and he
Was the first to admit, which I thought was refreshing that he's like, yeah, they use experience sucks. Like, we're working on it. We're going to make it better. It's going to be there's new wallets that are coming out. That won't ask all these really funky questions with around. Moving chains, the stuff that like, where you're just like, what the
hell am I doing? Where am I? Again? If we can't figure it out and we're in the shit every single day. Like, how is the average
consumer ever? Gonna wrap my head around?
Yeah, you probably understand this better than I do. But like we're still so early days in this because the user experience still so bad and so hard.
That you like we need it to be seamless, where it's one click sign in by it and then you don't have to worry. You're not like, oh my God. That I just was all my money because that's what happens. Sometimes. I feel like, even when I use meta mass now I'm like, oh my god, what happened to that transaction? Because it's a, you're waiting for, it's him firmer. Whatever it is. I think once we can get that curves flattened of helping people get into the space quicker than that's when I think massive ocean will come late very quick. That's right. They know. I'm okay with that being
somewhat centralized like I, you know, there's so many
Many people say, not your keys, not your crypto and and I get all of that. And as hardcore people, of course, will continue to manage our own keys. But there's going to be. There's something about what centralized organizations, especially startups are quite good at is putting really talented product, people and designers against the problem and rapidly iterating and creating something that an average person can use. What the hardcore Geeks are really good. At are creating the back end encryption and all the other things that we need.
To actually pull this off. Technically. So I'm not saying that that's not going to come on the decentralized side. I think it'll just the ease of use and Fiat on-ramp and everything else that we need. I think is going to come from the gym and eyes and the coin basis of the world. The coinbase marketplace comes out for an ftes. It's gonna be such a fantastic on-ramp to people for in at ease. So it truly is and we haven't that isn't washed yet. Right. It's got three million personal waitlist or something like that. It's definitely first pitch 1st inning and we have a long ways to go.
Yeah. And to your point is,
I think you're seeing this as well. We're at the really cool thing about entities that I don't think we were seeing last summer with Defy. Is that you're getting a lot of the front end. Deb's from like your normal Fang companies coming into the space because they're like, oh, I understand this because this is a consumer-facing product, and I'd rather make it look pretty and I can make it look good and work on the user experience, which at this point is I think what crypto really needs now more than ever.
Yes. Absolutely agree.
It's coming. It's I think that 12-18 months from now. We're going to be in a lot better place on all fronts. So it's exciting times. But gee money. Thank you so much for coming on the show, man. It's always a blast to hang with you in person and to chat when we do get to do that and then also obviously the chat on video and Discord whatnot. So it was great to have you here as well.
Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me on Kevin.
Yeah, please do come back. Anytime. You have an announcement to make or anything else because and I'll highly recommend People album, put all the links in the show notes, but people follow you, and all of your different.
Teachers and your domain name. G dot money for the newsletter there that you can put in your email address. That's pretty much that's got. That's got them covered right announce. New stuff will come to. Those channels will be through there. Awesome. Thanks for the show.
Amazing. Thanks. Thanks again, so much.
All right. That is it for this episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you would like to help us out head on over to proof dot x, y z and click on the reviews button at the very top and leave us the five star review. Thanks so much. Take care.
