Crypto Girls Katie and Dylan

We sat down with Harold and Charolotte Eytan, the brother-sister team behind Particle Collection ,to find out. Particle enables anyone to own, collect, and experience works of art using blockchain technology and NFTs, and they're leading the charge to make fine art more accessible. The team recently acquired a Banksy and opened up ownership to their community through fractionalization.

Charlotte, who serves as head of the Particle Foundation, has worked for some of the world’s leading galleries and auction houses, while Harold, CEO of Particle, has a background in venture building.

Follow Particle on Twitter @collectparticle to stay tuned for future drops.

Vocab words: Phygital (phyiscal + digital - yes, we hate it too.) 

In this episode, we chat with fellow crypto girls Stef and Lauren from the forthcoming podcast Allowlist. It's our first unstructured episode, where we really just let the convo flow. And where did we end up? In an intense discussion about what we'd love to see in the metaverse and why we'd create a sisterhood of the traveling haptic bodysuit. Also if you have a haptic bodysuit, DM us pls.

Follow Lauren, Stef, and Allowlist on Twitter: @laurendtierney, @bystefcaldwell, @allowlistvip

We will be featured on one of Allowlist's inaugural episodes dropping in early September, so be sure to follow! 

We continue our discussion from last week on the evolution of NFT projects from individual drops into full-fledged brands with Tara Fung. She's the co-founder and CEO of Co:Create, a new protocol that makes it possible for NFT projects to scale and generate new revenue streams. Armed with a $25M seed round led by a16z crypto, Co:Create is poised to lead the next evolution of the NFT ecosystem.

We chatted with Tara about the nitty-gritty of native tokens, consumer-facing projects, and the Coinbase insider trading case. In one of our favorite game times yet, we rate legacy brand NFT projects from "drip" (cool) to "drop" (flop).

Follow Tara at @nonfungibletara & follow Co:Create at @usecocreate on Twitter. 

In the introduction, we break down recent NFT news from Instagram, Reddit, Tiffany & Co.,  and go deep on Licensing vs. Creative Commons (CC0) – a hot topic in the NFT world these days. 

Further reading: 
Moonbirds & Oddities are now CC0 Twitter thread from @NFTSabeen on licensing vs. CC0JUMP email detailing Tiffany's licensing flop

Dirt is a daily newsletter about entertainment online that has earned a cult following. Recent dispatches include reflections on HBO's Gen Z workplace drama Industry, a look at thirsty brand Twitter accounts, and a deep dive on the history of shells in visual culture. New York Magazine put it best: Reading Dirt is "like getting a note about something interesting from a smart friend." 

A casual reader wouldn't know it, but the newsletter's operation is actually funded in part through the sale of NFTs – which is why we invited Dirt cofounder Daisy Alioto to come on the pod this week. Daisy is a writer who has previously worked in audience development, and she brings her depth of knowledge of the media landscape to her day-to-day at Dirt.

We discussed why NFTs could help the media world evolve, consumer demand in the crypto sphere, media vs. tech discourse, and which TV character is most likely to get wrapped up in an NFT scam.

Subscribe to Dirt at dirt.substack.com, and be sure to follow both Dirt and Daisy on Twitter, @dirtxyz / @daisandconfused. Also, if anyone knows what is happening with Bella Hadid's NFTs...please DM us.

Additional links:
Dall-E AI image generationTiffany NFTsTiffany CryptoPunk necklaces

And are curators actually just gatekeepers? It's a question we see raised often on crypto and NFT Twitter.  In a space like social media where nuance is lost, tastemakers and curators have sometimes become the unfair targets of those looking to shake up the business of selling art, and by extension, the business of selling NFTs.

We discussed this question and more with Jamie Gourlay, the co-founder of Verse, a new fine art NFT platform that enables collectors to discover and acquire NFTs by top artists working today. By releasing NFTs through exhibitions curated by institutional curators, advisors, NFT collectors, artists, and other tastemakers, Verse aims to become a trusted resource for art collectors looking to enter the NFT market.

Follow Verse on Twitter @verse_works and learn more at verse.works.

In the intro, we discuss some legal news from this week: The SEC and DOJ have charged a former Coinbase product manager with insider trading in what will likely become a landmark case for the crypto world. 

Read more: 
Decrypt: DOJ, SEC Charge Former Coinbase Product Manager With Insider TradingTechCrunch: The SEC takes a long-feared position in Coinbase insider trading suitBarron's: Coinbase and the SEC Are Facing Off. What’s at Stake.

In this episode, we break down the recent implosions of 3 crypto-adjacent companies: 3 Arrows Capital, Celsius, and BlockFi...and decide which one would make for the best Netflix mini-series. Casting choices include: Vin Diesel, the Sprouse twins, and potentially Colin Firth reprising his acclaimed role as a lawyer. 

Disclaimer: We are aware there are really people and real money at the center of these situations, and our intention is not to cause offense or harm. Our only goal is to educate people about these issues in a way that is entertaining and digestible. (Also, we're trying to laugh so we don't cry about the fact that the crypto ecosystem has now tanked more than enough money to solve world hunger. If you don't find that at least a little distressing and worthy of ridicule, we suggest you step away from the keyboard.) 

Sources:
From $10 billion to zero: How a crypto hedge fund collapsed and dragged many investors down with itCelsius Reclaims $172M Collateral From Aave, CompoundCelsius Network was a 'Ponzi scheme,' company's former investment manager alleges in lawsuitBlockFi's investors could get wiped out