The Current State of the NFT Market with Garyvee

Bankless Nation, welcome to another State of the Nation episode. The question on the menu today is Are NFTs back? David, they had a fantastic week last week, but they've been down pretty bad recently, and we have brought the perfect guest on to talk about the future of NFTs. Gary V, Gary Vanderchuk, which launched one of the most successful NFT projects that have been launched to date. It's a project called V Friends. Now he was here a year and a half ago, and uh he actually announced the launch of V Friends, uh partially on the Bankless podcast. So we wanted to regroup with Gary and talk a little bit about the future of NFTs. David, what should listeners look out for in this episode? What should they pay attention to? And why are we talking about this now?

Yeah, there's two worlds of the NFT world. There are the internal two crypto NFT projects, and then there's the creators out there who are leveraging this new technology to express themselves to their communities and interact with their communities in brand new ways. And that is really the frontier that Gary is pioneering. How to uh how to have NFTs as a communication vehicle between him and his very engaged fan base. Uh and so as NFTs have changed from the mania of 2021 that was, to the current build market that is of 2022, we want to pick Gary's brain as to what it's like to be an NFT creator in the era of 2022 NFTs. Uh so that's what I'm paying attention to is how to leverage NFTs to engage with your fans now that the hype cycle is behind us, Ryan.

I think some of these build market projects, NFT projects are going to come out a lot stronger on the other side of this and VFriends may be one to watch as well. Guys, we'll be right back with the episode of Gary V talking all about NFTs. But before we do, we want to thank the sponsors that made this episode possible.

Alright, guys, I want to introduce you yet again to Gary V, second time on the podcast, the first time he launched the VFriends NFT. We're gonna talk about that. He's a serial entrepreneur, he's an internet personality, of course, the founder of VFriends, which is an NFT project that helps him enhance his community perks, access, got all sorts of things. We want to explore NFTs today, and including, I think, towards the end, Gary has something special to announce for the community. So we're gonna talk about that as well. Uh, Gary, what's up, man? Welcome back to Bankless.

It's so good to be with you guys. Thank you so much. Thanks for everybody who's watching. It's a rainy day here in New York City.

Mm.

Indeed it is.

But um, but uh I'm grinding along. It's been a big day.

Well, you know what? Grinding I think is a good theme, right? Because uh we're at least in the wider crypto world, we're in kind of this this bear market, you know? Um and so that's what people tell me anyway. I'm not feeling particularly bearish, but uh some people are. Prices are down in a lot of areas. It's been about a year and a half. I think you came on in May of some time,

2021. Yep. Uh yeah, in launching vFriends during kind of this this secular bull market that we had and NFTs and crypto like in general. Um

Tell us what you've been up to since that time. Like catch us up and and give people a feel, if you will, Gary, for like what is the VF Friends project itself? Like, what is the purpose of it? And what do you been working on since we last spoke?

I mean, since we last spoke a ton, because that was just the launch of series one. Since then,

that August, September, I created something called Book Games, where if you bought 12 copies of my latest book, you would get NFTs that I did on Immutable,

which then became like functional for something I did in January where there was an exchange, and then that triggered.

advantages to get series two mints and special series twos that nobody else could get. Series two came out

in May of this year,

um

uh excuse or in April. And then the big play, the original premise of V Friends was to establish intellectual property, Smurfs, Scooby Doo,

um, all that stuff,

and um

and

Disney Pokemon, like how substantial

Of a Sesame Street like IP, can I create? Because it's something I've always wanted to do. If you look at

if you know, if you look at wrestling and toys and garage sales, this has been an obsession of mine. I thought I was going to buy a nostalgic

IP. This was something I talked a lot about

in my career.

Once I saw the NFT

uh realities of 2021, it was funny when I saw CryptoKitties in 17, I was like, huh. But I just didn't, I didn't really get there.

2020.

NBA comp shot. And then that brought me quickly to crypto punks. And I was like, oh.

And then obviously everything that happened that winter into 2021.

So the mission has always been build intellectual property, things like the Uno collaboration, like, I've got to build these characters.

Now at a higher level, the characters are meant to do what Gary Feynerchuk likes doing as Gary B, which is

spread positivity and kindness and compassion and patience, but also tenacity and work ethic. And, you know, I think we become so blue and red.

And I'm so deeply passionate about purple.

The world has become or

it's really about and. And I have a substantial mission

for VFriends to be a positive impact on the universe, the way Marvel and

Sesame Street and other intellectual properties have done so.

And so

that's been the focus on top of that

to make the initial cost valuable to people.

I did a three-year super conference, right? Called VCon.

And so since we last talked,

I think I had one of the most substantial events in the space, which was in Minnesota at U.S. Bank Stadium. We had 7, 8,000 people there. It was an incredible four-day weekend.

We had an incredible amount of speakers and just enormous amounts of love and positivity and practicality.

And, you

know, to me, I'm very proud of the initial costs of VFriends being valuable to the three events that people are going to. We'll be announcing VCON 2023, probably this month, which is way ahead of what we did last year. We've learned a lot.

Uno collaborations,

merchandise collaborations, a Reebok sneaker collaboration that

is

coming. Trading cards that, if you go to eBay right now, have completely dominated, which has been huge for me.

So, you know, like little subtle things like you trying to expand the IP. Like I grew up loving Flintstone's vitamins. I did a collab with Mary Ruth.

That's awesome.

You know, and so, you know, I've been doing a lot. Uh, what I haven't been doing

is

look, I said my piece.

I put out an obnoxious amount of content

in the height of the height of the height. And I already see you smiling there, David. So you know where I'm about to go.

I have unlimited receipts