In the Wild West of NFTs, Kenny Schachter Rubs Shoulders With Jay-Z, Crypto Grifters, Dodgy Doppelgangers, and Some Very Pricey Socks

Owning Gary Vaynerchuk NFTs are like buying a few of Tony Robbins teeth and gaining a seat in his mouth. I’d prefer Tony’s molars than a one-on-one mentoring session with GaryVee. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.

With unprecedented levels of cataclysmic events afoot, both natural and man-made, the end of the world can’t be far off. You can’t say the same about NFTism—even my phone has picked up on the lingo, and the market is back!

Smart phone. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.

I prefer pictures over numbers but here you have some concrete evidence that the overall number of sales and new entrants into the market is growing. A lot. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.

Iron Mike is one Cool Cat…or not? Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.

More unsettling than a bunch of juvenile, artless avatars are VeeFriends (10,250 tokens total, for now), named after Gary Vaynerchuk, the tech entrepreneur who styled himself a self-help guru and presently goes by the name GaryVee after a career as a wine critic who grew his family wine business (he changed the name to Empathy Wines, cue eye roll) and launched an online restaurant reservation company. The cliché critique “my child could have done it” does no justice to just how awful Veefriends look; yet, according to Mr. Vee, these little horrors emanated “straight from my soul.” Yes, we get what we deserve. Purchasing a VeeFriend is a ticket to a community of “friends”—providing a new measure of just how alienated we truly are—and comes with the added perk of a three-year admission to an annual “super-conference.” And, if you’ve accumulated enough, you can score some personal mentoring and coaching with Gary. Owning GaryVee tokens are like buying a few of Tony Robbins teeth and thereby gaining a seat in his mouth. I’d prefer Tony’s molars than a one-on-one meeting with GaryVee.

Gary Vaynerchuk poured his heart and soul into these characters. I think he’s more in a position of needing help than dishing it out. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.

A wrinkle in this rapidly changing NFT landscape are the appropriationists, like déjà vu all over again, art history style. The blockchain’s Wild West reputation didn’t come from thin air, though much else in this ethereal world did. Brazen NFT copyright infringement makes the antics of Richard Prince look like child’s play.

I can’t afford a Punk, granted, but I got myself a fistful of Phunks. The borders signify the degree of rarity, and maybe the scarcest, the monkey, may contribute to buying my house. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.

Let’s start with the least problematic of the copycats—which is a good name for an NFT project, by the way, or alternatively Mutts, mashing all the above critters in a crypto cauldron and minting a fortune in the process. The recipe for CryptoPhunks was succinctly described on their eponymous website: “Our intern, Philip, hand flipped all 10,000 CryptoPunk images horizontally in Photoshop… Phunks face left, because the other way just doesn’t feel right.” Larva Labs was less than amused and issued repeated DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) letters to the various platforms that listed the Phunks, which swiftly sold out for $20 each and since resold at ever-increasing levels. No, I can’t afford a CryptoPunk between $50,000 and $10 million, but at $20 per I copped myself 10 Phunks. Alas, keeping up with where to find them as they get successively booted off websites like OpenSea and Rarible has become an ongoing endeavor. Oh, where, oh, where have my CryptoPhunks gone, oh, where, oh, where have they gone? At the moment they exist in a digital no-person’s land, punk pariahs.

The original CryptoPunks are getting knocked off faster than Rolexes, with SolPunks on the Solana Blockchain, and Binance Cryptopunks on that chain, neither of which have any features to distinguish them from the originals. I understand why Larva Labs is up in arms about protecting their simplistic little creations: when you buy a Jasper Johns canvas it doesn’t come with the right to manufacture 10,000 pairs of Jasper Johns boxer shorts. Besides, unwitting nitwits are easily confused. There are even Bored Ape Yacht Club knockoffs. Keeping up is exhausting and a full-time job. I am going to establish a tokenized NFTism legal system to adjudicate all these and the surfeit of future conflicts that inexorably will arise.

Changpeng Zhao, known as “CZ,” is the Chinese-Canadian founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange—at least, it was until being banned from operating in an increasingly long list of countries. The rogue stealth company has been on the run since its beginnings in China, hopping to Japan and Malta (and I’m certainly missing a country) before landing in the Cayman Islands in an effort to stay a step ahead of international regulatory bodies. Binance is currently under investigation in the United States for tax offenses and money laundering. By selling and/or hosting outright fake Punks on their new NFT platforms (there are two), not to mention “Warhols” (a far cry from Andy’s first official NFT, sanctioned by the Warhol Foundation and sold at Christie’s to the kids of David Khalili, the noted Arabic art collector), Binance is doing itself no favors by playing into the stereotype of Chinese companies flouting of intellectual property by cloning everything and anything under the sun. Besides, they only offer artists a 1 percent resale royalty (vs. the crypto industry norm of 10 percent).

Nearly $3 million for three blatant Warhol ripoffs—it’s called a Binance bargain. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.

On the other side of the spectrum are Hashmasks, created by Suum Cuique Labs with a collective of over 70 global artists, which have traded more than $70 million worth to date. When you buy a Hashmask character (they are best described as Basquiatish), it’s accompanied by full copyright ownership so you are free to go nuts and make—and sell— your own Hashmask product range. (If you find that concept the least bit appealing.) In the meantime, Suum Cuique Labs are on the verge of a secret but imminent NFT drop in collaboration with a famous artist that will fly off the crypto shelves, mark my words.

Now for something even stupider than all the above combined. Rulton Fyder (a play on Richard Prince’s publishing imprint Fulton Ryder), aka Artorious, aka Pest Supply (a play on Banksy’s authentication arm), the anonymous art dealer/NFTist, made a fast million and caused a stir earlier this year when he successfully hijacked the visual language of classic Banksy graphics to create his first series of NFTs. Rulton contacted me soon after, mentioning his penchant for Russian prostitutes and cocaine for some odd reason and saying I had done a favor for him in a restaurant a couple of years ago—and, as a result, he wanted to reward me. He asked for my wallet address and proceeded to deposit dozens of his digital appropriations over the ensuing months. Then, into the picture came artist Ryder Ripps (his real name, you can’t make this shit up). Although Ryder sold his audio sex tape NFT feat. Azealia Banks to Rulton (are you following me?), Ryder became suspicious of various online activities of Rulton. Speaking of sex, they both sound like porn-star names in this still unfolding crypto soap-opera saga.

Ok, here’s the gist of the Rulton-Ryder rhubarb. Ryder traced multiple accounts that were bidding up Rulton’s NFTs and tokens, which were all traceable back to Rulton. There were a bunch of journals that Rulton is also anonymously behind talking up his own works and the crypto coins, Erotica for one, that Rulton created, to sell (more) sex NFTs, though to date it’s just been traded as a shell with no content. There was even an account in the name of Simon de Pury on NFT site Rarible traceable to Rulton, which Simon was none too pleased about when I informed him.

Ryder has been on nothing short of a crusade to unearth the true identity of the person behind the pump-and-dump scheme, in which he churns fake accounts to create the impression of demand for his crypto forays. (See Ryder’s research here). Such behavior might be common in some precincts of the art world, but they are a hell of a lot easier to effectuate on the blockchain. At one point I was going to write an essay for Rulton’s exhibit in German gallery Pulpo, but the ridiculousness of this all was too much. Even for me. Either way, they’re both selling internet sex without climaxes.

Jonas Lund’s metaverse version of Noah’s Ark, which by its reduced digital footprint will leave plenty of spare room for others to join the trip. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.

On a (much) more positive note, there is the artist Jonas Lund and his JLT (Jonas Lund Token). Though he is not the first to tokenize himself—Rhea Myers, who is in my show Breadcrumbs at Nagel + Draxler Gallery in Cologne through August 21, did it with his soul in 2014—I’m pretty sure Lund is the first to create a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization, and if you don’t know what it is, you will soon, trust me) for coinholders to contribute to the administering of all aspects of his art life, including suggesting proposals for his career and works. If you own JLT, you also share in the profits from his practice, including his latest show at Johann König’s Dencentraland metaverse gallery.

Jonas Lund is a mercenary who puts bounties on his own head. Love it. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.

The Lund stakeholders helped choose the figurative content of his Memory pieces in the exhibit, steering the artist away from abstractions. It’s like creating a cult and assuming the role of both leader and follower—simultaneously. Sounds good to me; I’m a fan. There is also a bounty list to encourage those with a vested interest to further the cause by rewarding them with more tokens if they contribute to advancing his notoriety with posts and articles, et cetera. He already reserved a seat for me at the table if this mention should qualify. In all honesty and in the name of transparency, I hope so!

Today, there is a new NFT platform, innovation, and auction every second. And it won’t stop anytime soon. You can rent out your NFTs, buy and sell at an NFT online auction house, or participate in curator led initiatives like https://jpg.space or www.institut.co, where I am organizing the first show (with an accompanying physical exhibit at Unit Gallery) in London opening September 10 and featuring 100 artists. There is even a crypto-driven site for writers—ahem, take note, Artnet. (And, by the way, when are you going to accept crypto for a Pro membership already, Artnet?). Granted, 90 percent of NFTs may very well be worthless in three to five years, as Coinbase exchange founder Fred Ehrsam warned in a recent Bloomberg interview—but, then again, so will  most of the art on offer at the next iteration of Frieze.