Despite a protracted crypto winter, Galaxy Digital and its CEO Mike Novogratz remain bullish — and they’re ready to tell the world about the company’s first NFTs.
The 3,210 digital collectibles, which were announced on Friday as part of Galaxy’s Explorer collection, will be released on October 14. The NFTs will not only celebrate the company’s new logo, a square and circle resembling a space helmet, but also Novogratz’s confidence in the sector.
“Crypto is having a hard time, but we’re still here,” he said Fortune. “We are building for the future.”
NFT sales have been declining for months. Transaction volume on the most popular NFT marketplace, OpenSea, has fallen by more than 12% over the past 30 days, according to crypto analytics platform DappRadar, which also recorded over the same period that the most popular collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club, has slipped by approx. 11%.
Despite that, Novogratz pointed to the adoption of the technology by major companies like Nike and major sports leagues like the NBA as evidence that NFTs are here to stay.
“In many ways [it] It was easier to get people to understand blockchains through NFTs than through Bitcoin,” Novogratz said.
Created in collaboration with Time’s Web3 initiative TIMEPieces, Galaxy’s NFT collection will feature designs from three generative artists: Jake Andrews, Parin Heidari and William Kwaku Amo. They created the pieces using computer code to reflect their own distinct styles, said Eva Casanova, head of laboratories for Galaxy Interactive, one of Galaxy Digital’s funds.
Each NFT is unique, Casanova added, and using code the artist gives each piece a number of different properties, similar to collections like CryptoPunks. But unlike CryptoPunks, which traded for hundreds of thousands of dollars, the company sends the NFTs for free to employees, portfolio company founders as well as industry partners. Although the pieces are not intended to be sold, if any, the proceeds will go to the artists.
“We are not doing this as a financial endeavor. We do this to create spirit in our community,” Novogratz said. “We are here for the long haul.”
