NFT
Two months ago, a little-known NFT startup focused on helping emerging artists introduce themselves to the world. Dubbed Wild, it sported a bevy of corporate celebrities as backers such as LinkedIn founders Reid Hoffman and Twitch’s Kevin Lin.
But the headlines at the time, both in The Block’s coverage and elsewhere, was actress Gwyneth Paltrow. The Oscar winner and founder of the multimillion-dollar Goop wellness brand empire is said to have invested in Wild at the time. Now that is up for debate.
Nearly two months later, a representative for Paltrow’s said over the weekend that it was “completely untrue” that she had invested in Wild, while a Wild spokesperson later said in a statement that the “initial reporting was accurate.”
Paltrow’s team seemingly distanced her from any crypto-related project in retrospect — Wild used her name online back in March when The Block and others initially reported the actress’ involvement — is just the latest example in an ongoing parade of once-enthusiastic celebrities turn their backs on the digital asset industry.
“We have clearly seen the implosion of crypto,” said Les Borsai, a music industry veteran who co-founded Wave Digital Assets. “We’ve seen the SEC go after celebrities. There is concern. So it’s not the usual greed mechanism that kicks in to say, “I can go do a crypto thing, or a web3 thing, with no consequences.” Their representation is not stupid.”
Fallon, Damon and FTX boosters
Last year, “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon stopped using a Bored Ape NFT as his avatar on Twitter and the market started to sour. Actor Matt Damon said he took money to place an ad on Crypto.com because he needed money for his nonprofit organization that helps people access clean water and sanitation. Shaquille O’Neal said he was “just a paid spokesperson” for FTX – and is facing a class action lawsuit – over his decision to promote the now-disgraced crypto trading platform.
Although weeks after news of Paltrow’s now-disputed investment went public, Paltrow’s team was stern in their denial, repeating it three times by email.
“We were made aware of the story about Gwyneth Paltrow supporting web3 art platform Wild,” said Goop EVP Noora Raj Brown in her first email denying her boss’s involvement, sent last Saturday. “This story is completely false and Gwyneth is not an investor in the platform.”
The Block corrected his early March story based on Brown’s email and stripped it of any mention of Paltrow. At the time of original publication, Wild founder and Chief Executive J. Douglass Kobs told The Block in a written interview that Paltrow had invested in the web3 company alongside Matrix Partners, LinkedIn’s Hoffman, and Twitch’s Lin.
Wild’s CEO says he met Paltrow at a leadership summit
In the March story on Wild, Kobs said he and Paltrow became friends after meeting at a leadership summit in 2021, adding that she is an “early adopter” of web3 and NFTs. The crypto news outlet Decrypt also reported the news of Paltrow’s involvement, as did CoinDesk. Evidence of Paltrow’s disputed involvement also exists elsewhere online, including a link to Wild’s original announcement that can be accessed through OpenSea, a leading NFT marketplace.
It is not unheard of for projects to announce a list of funders, but for some to publicly deny such involvement. This week, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek issued a statement denying that it had invested in a crypto startup called Array. Last month, no fewer than four alleged funders of the fledgling OPNX exchange said they weren’t investors after the startup claimed they were.
Celebrity advisors have been trying for months to help their clients avoid becoming embroiled in an industry that continues to experience serious growing pains and intense regulatory and political scrutiny.
Months ago, a top Hollywood agent told The Block that his company spent a lot of time advising clients against promoting crypto-related projects. “You don’t want to start doing something that jeopardizes your credibility in space,” they said at the time.
Not enough marketing dollars
The current trend of less celebrity endorsement of crypto projects is also driven by companies having less money to spend on marketing, said Anthony Georgiades, co-founder of Pastel Network, an NFT-focused blockchain.
Speaking from personal experience, Georgiades said he had multiple conversations with celebrities who were excited about working on an NFT project, but later withdrew “any interest in participating” when they felt they weren’t properly compensated. Even if he didn’t take the news well, he understands their perspective. “Why would you even risk it? There is too much control, too much uncertainty,” he said.
Borsai, who is passionate about creating a new paradigm with web3 that will redefine the rights that celebrities and influencers own in terms of monetizing the content they create and their reach, said he dreams of a world where the crypto recommendations of the past are not repeated.
“I don’t believe we should live in a culture where we pay Kim Kardashian $2 million to talk about something she doesn’t understand,” Borsai said. That’s why she got in trouble with the SEC. I would never use someone like Kim Kardashian.”
Kardashian received $250,000 to promote EthereumMax on Instagram and then the SEC penalized her, forcing her to pay $1.26 million, the regulatory body said last year.