Crypto, NFTs, Memecoins, Oh My!
An Open Article for Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports Regarding Crypto Projects — Coins or NFTs?
Skip the meme coins for now and bring back the golden age of NFTs.
It seems like years I’ve been watching Dave Portnoy’s pizza reviews online. There’s something particularly engaging about watching this guy sample a slice of pizza, comment on the “crisp” and the “flop,” ruminate over it … and then deliver his score — a verdict that can put a pizza shop on the map if it’s anything over, say, a 7.5.
I didn’t know he was into crypto, though, until recently, when I saw that he’d aped into the $TRUMP coin and managed to pocket a “quick milly”:
That all said, with the frenzy of meme coins coming out in recent times, Dave was quick to warn his 3.4 million X followers that he’s not in that game — at least not yet:
Fair enough. But it did get me thinking about celebrity crypto projects once again. I think it’s fair to say that most crypto projects, be they coins or NFTs, have a life cycle of (1) initial hype, → (2) initial growth, and then → (3) a long, painful death march toward zero.
That ought to be enought to give any founder pause, celebrity or not. But for celebrities in particular, it’s something I’d recommend seriously considering prior to taking action because, aside from crypto degens who’ll ape into anything for a profit, a good portion of holders will be the celebrity founder’s true fans.
That’s not to recommend against pursuing a crypto project, though.
Rather, I’d say: If you’re going to do it, at least do it right — position yourself for the best chance at success possible. For me, that would be via a generative NFT set of 10,000 unique art pieces featuring absolutely stunning artwork as well as elements from the Barstool and/or Portnoy brands.
Why? Well, read on…
Want to see something interesting?
Type “I miss NFTs” into the search bar of X. You’ll get a giant list of sentiment from crypto twitter, like this small snippet:
What 99% of these people are pining for is the old-school, mid-2021-style, huge-hype 10,000 PFP NFT drop. Great art, whitelist, maybe a Discord … and on Ethereum, too — gas-war and all. Just the whole spectacle of all of that.
Clearly, the space is ripe for a return to something like that. Maybe over-ripe. Dave Portnoy launching such a thing would break the internet, imho. It’s not a question of “if” it would sell out. It’s more of a question of: What could this do to the entire NFT space?
Such an approach would not guarantee long-term success, of course. But such a project does take a while, generates a ton of hype and excitement, whips thousands of people into activity and anticipation, and is a whole lot of fun.
And if a celebrity like Dave Portnoy does it right, I’d say there’s a real shot of expanding the whole experience — transforming the hype curve into something new, escaping the exponential decay we’re all so tired of, avoiding the pump and dump fall-off that 90% of projects experience.
What to Do Now?
First off, skip the Solana coin thing, for now. I see this far too much (celebs going straight for a coin), and have recommended against it time and time again. Instead, let’s chat about how to pull off what I recommended above — in a truly memorable, valuable, and classy way. Any random low-effort meme coin drop can be a perk for NFT holders later on. There will always be time for meme coins!
I’ve coded about $40 million in generative NFT sets, Dave, including for other celebs. Here’s a partial portfolio! Drop me a line if you’d like to chat — Jim [at] GenerativeNFTs.io. I’d love to outline a comprehensive plan!
