Chasing the NFT ‘Gold Rush’; YouTube Shorts Picks Up Views

The internet craze for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has piqued the interest of creators, who are experimenting with selling their own NFTs, the one-of-a-kind digital collectibles that range from Jack Dorsey’s first tweet to the photo behind the Disaster Girl meme. A service called Rally.io, which allows people to launch their own digital currency, will soon unveil a way for creators to sell NFTs to their fans. 

“Creators are chasing that gold rush,” said Goldie Chan, an influencer and social media strategist. 

On Wednesday, Rally also announced that it raised $57 million through the sale of $RLY, a token on the ethereum network (a blockchain-based platform) to investors including individuals. 

What’s Next: The San Francisco-based crypto platform, which previously raised venture funding from Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Battery Ventures, said its top five creators are transacting $102,000 on average every week, in what’s known as creator coins or social tokens. Rally is now working on an integration with Shopify so merchants using that e-commerce software can accept creator coins, said Bremner Morris, who runs Rally’s revenue and marketing.

The Takeaway: Social media celebrities are hungry for new ways to make money. Using personalized digital currencies to sell buzzy NFTs as well as other services, such as access to private chats on the Discord app or exclusive merchandise, could fit the bill. Creator coins also extend their personal branding. The cynic’s take? It could be easier than ever to track the decline in a creator’s financial value.

One more thing: $RLY isn’t a currency in the way bitcoin is. Investors in $RLY (currently valued at $0.81) have voting rights, like approving a Rally marketing campaign, and can convert $RLY into creator coins.