Doodles vs. Goblintown: A Tale of Two Ethereum NFT Parties

This week, if you only remotely followed NFT NYC on Twitter, you might have come to believe that the entire event was a failure that only served to embarrass the public. On Monday night, when the week had only started, there were tweets mocking Apefest, mocking an NFT date proposal, and claiming that NFT NYC had “already failed.”

For NFT skeptics and detractors, the truth is less satisfying: everyone I spoke to was bullish despite the severe cryptocurrency drop, and the feelings were really upbeat. As FTX Ventures’ Amy Wu tweeted:

“Last wk ppl told me #NFTNYC would be weird because crypto was dead. Happy to report the opposite happened.”

Sure, many proudly displayed their JPEGs at lunches, panels, and parties spread throughout the city. Many caps, hoodies, and denim jackets had Punks, Apes, Cool Cats, and Gutter Cats embroidered on them.

NFTs with utility

NFTs as tickets to real-world events, and other potential use cases outside of wealth flexing were also addressed.

The perfect accidental contrast in the current state of the hottest NFT collections was offered by two distinct parties in particular.

Tuesday night, a “kickoff celebration” was organized at the Palladium Theater in Times Square for Doodles, the No. 13 bestselling NFT collection ever. The event was scheduled to begin at 7 o’clock, but Doodles holders were forced to sit in their seats until the presentation finally began at 10:05 o’clock. At that point, former Billboard executive and current CEO of Doodles Julian Holguin took the stage.

The PowerPoint presentation was completed by Holguin. With bullet points like “sold out in minutes” and “2,600 ETH in the Doodlebank,” one presentation reminded the audience of what Doodles had already accomplished. Then Holguin went over every marketing endeavor Doodles had undertaken three months prior at this year’s SXSW conference. Even ardent Doodles owners in the crowd were moaning.

2011’s NewFronts had the atmosphere of a business presentation

Finally, Holguin played a pre-recorded video from Doodles founder Alexis Ohanian saying that 776 Ventures had led the company’s first-ever fundraising round (though Doodles did not disclose the amount raised). The audience screamed as he then played a pre-recorded video from Pharrell, the new chief brand officer of Doodles.

I attended the Goblintown party in Terminal 5 after the Doodles event. It was like day and night in contrast.

The Goblintown NFT collection, for those who are unaware, appeared out of nowhere last month, and on June 1 its floor price doubled overnight to almost 9 ETH, or $17,000 at the time. Since then, the OpenSea floor price has dropped to 3.65 ETH, or $4,500. The collection, which has as its themes nihilism and urine, claims, “no route map No dissent. not useful.”

It was therefore appropriate that the Goblintown party had a grungy, casual atmosphere. The party included Illuminati triangles, Tarot cards, and a (actual) tattoo station inside, while a truck outside sold cheeseburgers and the party’s hosts only communicated in goblin gibberish. More people in gummy burgers, goblin masks, and “WANTED” banners bearing Beeple’s face were present during an after-party on the dance floor of Chelsea Music Hall.

There was no discussion about chief brand officers or marketing activations; it was just pure fun. For the current crypto market, it struck the appropriate note. A sense of community prevailed.

Fans of Doodles will undoubtedly respond to all of this by saying that the company is actively working to increase value for holders and expand the brand. “Doodles is a brand ready to dominate pop culture for years to come,” gushed NFT influencer @NFTbark in a thread after attending the Doodles event. He adored the mission statements and the slides. He said in his conclusion that a Fortune 500 organization would find the presentation impressive.

Could be? But NFTs are also meant to be enjoyable. What are we doing here, besides flipping coins, if it’s not fun?

DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

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Annie

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