GM, BFF: $2 billion in creator royalties

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Two billion USD. That’s how much creators received in secondary sale royalties from non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces over the last two years. According to a16z’s State of Crypto report, which aims to assess the durability of blockchain technology, Web3 is outshining creator tools of days past — despite the volatility.

We know crypto is firmly in its winter era, but the long-term implications of NFTs for creators are impossible to ignore. When compared to Web2 creator platforms — well, there’s almost no comparison, actually. 

As stated in the report, Meta earmarked only $1 billion for creators in 2022. Given the sheer volume of Meta platform users — some 3.74 billion monthly users are on Instagram and WhatsApp — it’s remarkable that Web3 generated billions in royalties with such a small user base still in the tens of millions.

Which makes us wonder … what will happen once 3 billion users adopt NFTs?

Are you curious, too? Read the 2023 State Of Crypto Report and get a16z’s full industry snapshot.

Catch Up Quick

Taylor Swift outsmarts FTX. The pop superstar reportedly turned down a $100 million sponsorship and was the only celebrity to ask whether the now defunct exchange was selling unregistered securites.

Hot memecoin spring. NFT traders are hype over the PEPE token launched last Friday, which kicked off a memecoin mania reminiscent of the Dogecoin and SHIB craze of early 2021.

Regulators, please get on our level. Ava Labs CEO and founder Emin Gün Sirer saidWeb3cannot consider itself legit until regulators are able to read and audit code — which they currently can't.

Bull run reflections. In this week's Creator Spotlight, BFF contributor Liya Dashkina spoke to Aslan Ruby's Sarana Haeata about designing two beloved PFP collections.

Gensler gets grilled. Majority Whip Tom Emmer reclaimed his time at a House Financial Services Hearing this week — and we wish all Web3 discourse could be this direct.

Ethereum's Shapella upgrade draws a crowd. Institutional investors recorded three times more new staking deposits on Ethereum than last month after the Shanghai upgrade finally went live.

Zora Zine is here! Our friends at Zora launched the first print issue of their culture magazine on Thursday, taking the Zora community's commitment to on-chain creativity to another level — journalism!

From Our Founding BFFs

Media entrepreneur Shira Lazar and Peace Inside are inviting you to enjoy a month of JOMO, aka the JOY of missing out. 🥰 Get a chance to mint a piece in the JOMO Effect collection on May 10th by signing up for the Early Access Joy List.

Lettering artist (and the creator of the BFF Friendship Bracelet) Jessica Hische launched her new children's book, Who Will U Be? Grab a copy now!

Investor and entrepreneur Moj Mahadara was featured in Forbes, where they spoke about closing the founder gap. 

BFF Events

Thanks for reading! We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to let us know what you think of this newsletter and what you’d like to see from it in the future by emailing hello@mybff.com.

🚨 This newsletter and all the information in it does not constitute financial advice. If you don’t want to invest money or time in Web3, you don’t have to. As always: Do your own research.

Megan DeMatteo is BFF's Editorial Partner.

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