- One of the most successful crypto founders is now into the latest crypto thing: nonfungible tokens.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has released a song called “Never Give Up” as an NFT.
- It’s one of three NFT songs he is doing with the DJ Davi and up for bid on crypto marketplace Zora.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong just released an electronic song called “Never Give Up” as a nonfungible token (NFT).
It is one of three songs Armstrong will be releasing, which were created in collaboration with David Khanjian, a DJ best known as Davi. Davi will be taking all the proceeds earned from the NFTs sold, Armstrong said in a tweet Thursday.
Armstrong said the “Never Give Up” track, which is six minutes and 52 seconds, is about “how when you try to build something new, there will be many doubters and haters along the way. Ignore them and trust your gut.”
“Determination is key to innovation (with homage to @elonmusk),” Armstrong said further of the track, which features audio taken from a “60 Minutes” interview with the famous SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, who has publicly done battle against his own naysayers, such as the people who have shorted Tesla’s stock.
Armstrong seems to view himself in the same boat as Musk and as winning against the naysayers.
Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, was valued at $68 billion last month, Reuters reported. It is about to go public in a much-anticipated direct listing on April 14.
But for many years during the company’s early life, people thought Bitcoin wouldn’t amount to much and didn’t think there would be a future for crypto-related companies like Armstrong’s.
“There were over 379 articles written, prematurely declaring the end of Bitcoin,” Armstrong wrote in a blog post last year. “Not only did Bitcoin survive, it thrived, becoming the top performing asset of the decade. The naysayers were proved wrong.”
Later in the year, Armstrong was treated to more naysayers when he was embroiled in controversy over a policy he enacted that declared Coinbase would remain apolitical by taking no stands on politics or social causes. The stance caused a lot of backlash, and about 5% of the company left. But, the company told Insider, new applicants flocked in.
Choosing to make the songs NFTs is also significant, as they are the latest hot thing in the crypto world. NFTs are digital assets stored on a blockchain, the same technology used to create Bitcoin. So they can’t be duplicated, destroyed, or edited. NFTs have garnered headlines lately for both music and digital art, with some pieces selling for millions.
All three of Armstrong’s NFT songs are being released on crypto marketplace Zora, which is a portfolio company of Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of Coinbase.
Zora’s platform lets creators, musicians, and fashion brands sell products in tokenized form. The company recently raised a $10 million round in March led by Kindred Ventures that included Coinbase Ventures, Trevor McFedries, Alice George, and Jeff Staple, according to PitchBook.
Armstrong said the pursuit to create electronic music became a hobby he picked up during the pandemic with the help of Khanjian.
“We created these songs over the past year as a fun way for me to learn Ableton Live etc,” Armstrong said in a tweet. “To be clear – 99% of the talent comes from him, but it was fun for me to work on them nonetheless.”
Zora declined comment, and Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
