In addition licensing and brand partnerships, CAA will facilitate partnerships with "blue-chip brands looking to enter the NFT space."
The market for intellectual property based on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continues to grow.
CAA on Friday said that it has signed one of the crypto-world’s most well-known collectors and tastemakers, the pseudonymous “0xb1,” and will help monetize their collection of NFTs through licensing and brand partnerships.
The collection includes NFTs from the “Bored Ape Yacht Club,” “Mutant Ape Yacht Club,” “Cool Cats,” and “Spunks by Spongenuity,” among others (including “Demon Mutant Ape, pictured above). CAA will also facilitate “advisory partnerships” between 0xb1 and “blue-chip brands looking to enter the NFT space.”
The deal continues an ongoing trend of talent agencies turning to the NFT space for novel IP. CAA recently signed Jenkins The Valet (from the Bored Ape Yacht Club) as well as NFT creators Micah Johnson and Mack Flavelle.
UTA, meanwhile, recently signed on to represent the NFT projects from Larva Labs for film and TV, including CryptoPunks, Autoglyphs and Meebits.
In the case of CAA and 0xb1, there’s also the role that other large companies are looking to play in the NFT space. Visa recently purchased a CryptoPunk as part of a push into the NFT ecosystem, and as other brands consider doing the same (Fox Corp. is launching its own crypto project), they may need guides familiar with that world to help navigate it.
“We think that the best way for merchants and creators and brands to have success in this ecosystem is to really try it out and experience it,” Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s global head of crypto told The Hollywood Reporter last month. “It would be hard to build an ecommerce store if you had never purchased something online. We think it is going to be difficult to build successful NFT experiences if you have never been on-chain, if you have never purchased or collected an NFT.”
HollywoodReporter
