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At Gary Vaynerchuk’s multi-day non-fungible token (NFT) conference “VeeCon” in Minneapolis, there was no visible sign of the market collapse that preceded the crypto-palooza. ‘Happy’ singer Pharrell Williams had just left the main stage after bestowing the virtues of Web 3.0 and telling the enthusiastic NFT collector crowd “you are changing the paradigm right now.” Nearby, a line of mostly men in their late 20s and early 30s waited patiently to buy whatever merch they could afford.
More than $1 million wiped away from the crypto market
In the prior six weeks, more than $1 trillion in crypto assets had been wiped away while the value of NFTs fell more than 80% from their market peak. For the serial entrepreneur and host of the festivities, the steep losses in the cryptocurrency industry merely vindicated his view: Vaynerchuk, or Gary Vee, as he’s known, had predicted this crash or “NFT Winter” on multiple occasions.
According to Vaynerchuk, he said in August, in July, and May, he already knew these things were coming. Indeed, this crash driven by a short term greed is absolutely potentially what the industry and enthusiasts were in. Furthermore, he mentioned that it is just starting and there is a correction.
Gary Vaynerchuk claims to be the head of the curve on crypto
Vaynerchuk, who founded VaynerMedia, VaynerSports, and a signature NFT collection called VeeFriends, claimed to be ahead of the curve on crypto as one of the original NFT evangelists. In his view, the recent correction is a healthy check to the excess speculation.
Crypto speculation was as crazy as internet stocks in the late ’90s being worth $400 billion for Pets.com, Vaynerchuk said, comparing the NFT boom to the dot-com bubble. “The internet was coming, it was gonna change the world. The valuations on Wall Street were overblown. The valuations on NFTs in this first year are overblown… but the fundamentals are real. The macro is super right — NFTs are here forever. The micro is wrong, that’s why we’re correcting.
Celebrities, be careful of endorsement!
Following the aforementioned crash, the shine began to wear off of celebrity endorsements that put crypto, NFTs, and Web 3 in the global spotlight, particularly those that aired during the most recent Super Bowl in Los Angeles, which was referred to as the “Crypto Bowl” due to the slate of crypto ad campaigns.
One New York Times article questioned the silence of celebrities who starred in crypto commercials, including Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, and Lebron James, during the market meltdown. Vaynerchuk stated that the reporting was mostly lazy and pointed to his many warnings on the asset class.
