👑 YouTubers make $23million in 10 minutes, Aussies to plant 25,000 NF-Trees, and which streamer is featuring your NFT in their big show? 🌲

Well, happy Friday everyone!

The world of Web3 and the Metaverse is definitely always-on, and the last seven days have been as busy as ever...

As we might expect, the social giants Meta and Twitter are busy layering in NFT functionality to their environments and products.

But what gets me particularly excited are the creator-led projects that are redefining what is possible in media.

Demonetised YouTubers make a mint in NFTs

The most remarkable win of this week goes to the NELK boys, Canadian creators who managed to sell $23 million of NFTs in their first drop this week.  Their 10,000 Full Send Metacards sold out in around 10 minutes.

With 12 million subscribers across their 6 YouTube channels, the boys already had a very large audience to sell into.

And their Metacards offer a range of digital and real-life membership benefits that obviously chimed with fans who were willing to spend $2,300 each to buy the virtual tokens.

And according to recent reports, there had been over $10m worth of resales of the tokens on Opensea following the drop. The tokens are still available for resale there, currently trading at over 300% of their initial price:

As professional pranksters, the NELK boys are no strangers to controversy, and it seems that their spectacular NFT sale will only increase their notoriety.

The Canadian crew had been facing demonetisation from YouTube following videos of them partying during Covid 19. But they will not be weeping about their lost YouTube advertising revenue if they can sell NFTs for such a lot of money so quickly.

This approach will surely be copied by other popular YouTubers as they seek ways to profit from their audiences. Get ready for a rush of creator NFT drops!

Thanks to James Bishop of One Fine Play for the tip

Streamer developing TV shows starring the viewer's avatar

This week's episode of the Expensive JPEG's podcast is a cracker.  It features Jon Rogers, the founding executive of Disney’s Franchise Management division. Jon helped manage brands like Pirates Of The Caribbean by formulating ten-year plans for careful growth.

There are multiple revelations in this excellent interview, but the one that stood out was Jon's claim that a major streamer has a technology team working to enable NFT owners to see their digital selves on screen, starring in their favourite shows.  While Jon wouldn't reveal which streamer he was referring to, it is a fascinating idea that Hollywood wants to personalise hit shows. Imagine seeing your avatar as a contestant in season eight of Squid Game?!?

Jon also discusses why Sony should sell Spiderman to Disney, and the huge opportunity he sees around the Star Trek franchise.

It's a belter of a podcast - definitely worth an hour or so of your time.

Save the planet, plant an NF-Tree

I'm a big fan of projects that seek to make the world a better place. And today I came across Metatrees, an Australian NFT project that plans to mint 25,000 NFTs, planting a tree on their real-life Metafarm for each token sold.

As the custodian of a farm here in the UK, this project is particularly inspiring. And I can see NFT projects like this could become a brilliant way for NGOs to gain great ground with tech-minded supporters.

Let's hope the project gets traction and that a small corner of New South Wales turns green once more!

Hope you have great weekends - thanks for reading, subscribing, sharing and caring 😜