Celebrities are embracing NFTs in a big way By Cointelegraph

On Oct 30, 2021

The nonfungible token (NFT) market is growing. According to a new report by analytics platform DappRadar, NFT trade volume soared past $10 billion during the third quarter of 2021, a sevenfold increase from the previous quarter’s figure. Although a significant slice of that action comes from runaway hits like NBA Top Shot, CryptoPunks and gaming platform , NFT use cases are rapidly proliferating as creators recognize their potential.

In the not-too-distant past, celebrities keen to profit from the burgeoning crypto scene had few options. Mostly, they were limited to shilling an initial coin offering (ICO) or investing their own money in a startup they deemed promising. Thanks to NFTs, however, they can now leverage their star appeal by releasing sought-after digital collectibles representing, well, just about anything: artwork, albums, trading cards, or merchandise. These tokenized collectibles can then, in turn, be traded on the open market among fans and investors.

Mitch Liu is the co-founder and CEO of Theta Labs. In 2010, Liu co-founded Gameview Studios, one of the earliest free-to-play mobile game studios best known for its Tap Fish game franchise with nearly 100 million downloads. The company was acquired by DeNA, a leading Japanese mobile gaming company six months after launch. Prior to that, he co-founded Tapjoy in 2007, a pioneer of mobile video advertising, and grew that company to $100MM in revenues. He holds a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.