- Led by a collective of blockchain engineers,
- Traditional works of art such as paintings are valuable precisely because they are one of a kind.
- NFTs are currently taking the digital art and collectibles world by storm.
- The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.
- The records cannot be forged because the ledger is maintained by thousands of computers around the world.
Throne, a Singapore based blockchain company focused on building an NFT ecosystem, announced today that it has secured $16 million for its Series A. The round was led by digital asset investment firm Annex Capital, Gee Roberson the former manager of Kanye West and Drake, British award-winning music producer Nellee Hooper who was worked with U2, Madonna, Bjork, Massive Attack and Chimere Cisse a consultant to the United Nations International Trade Centre,
Led by a collective of blockchain engineers, Throne is a thriving company in what has been labeled a ‘game changer’ space, non-fungible tokens or NFTs. In economics, a fungible asset is something with units that can be readily interchanged – like money. With money, you can swap a $20 dollar bill for two $10 dollar bills and it will have the same value. However, if something is non-fungible, this is impossible – it means it has unique properties so it can’t be interchanged with something else. It could be a house, or a painting such as the Mona Lisa, which is one of a kind. You can take a photo of the painting or buy a print but there will only ever be one original painting. NFTs are “one-of-a-kind” assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but which have no tangible form of their own. The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.
Traditional works of art such as paintings are valuable precisely because they are one of a kind. But digital files can be easily and endlessly duplicated.
With NFTs, artwork can be “tokenised” to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold. As with crypto-currency, a record of who owns what is stored on a shared ledger known as the blockchain. The records cannot be forged because the ledger is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. NFTs can also contain smart contracts that may give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Throne is interesting because it is right at the center of this cutting technology with an entire ecosystem, a network, a marketplace and a native currency ‘THN’. The company introduced THN on exchanges only two months ago and has already traded over $60 million since.
“It is exciting to see disruptive technology like NFTs transform our relationship to content and empower content creators like never before. NFTs will activate the worlds of finance and pop culture to embrace blockchain technology. I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome Gee, Nellee, Chimere and the team at Annex Capital,” commented Adam Strauss, Chief Strategy Officer.
NFTs are currently taking the digital art and collectibles world by storm. It is fair to say that if Andy Warhol had been around today, he probably would have minted Campbell’s Soup as an NFT.
Amid the intensity around NFTs, digital artists are seeing their lives change thanks to huge sales to a new crypto-audience. “We are only scratching the surface, still 99% of the population has not minted an NFT, it’s just the beginning” adds Chimere Cisse.
“This investment signals an inflection point for Throne and Annex Capital to expand upon our shared vision to support and accelerate blockchain initiatives that advance society” said Charlotte Lee Managing Director at Annex Capital.
With the new funding, Blockchain head Anthony Karter says “we are ready to accelerate our efforts by hiring new talent, elevating our marketing efforts and putting R&D into action for mass-scale growth.”
It is hard to pin down the exact driver of NFT mania, though the wider boom in cryptocurrencies has created a cohort of crypto millionaires and billionaires who believe in the promise of the blockchain and have money to bet on it.
By /Hamza ishfaq chief editor and CEO