Phil Rosen/Insider
- In an exclusive interview with Insider, the CEO of Doodles broke down why its NFTs could hold value through a recession.
- Doodles has cleared over $500,000 in sales volume, hired Pharrell Williams as an exec, and received funding from a VC firm led by Reddit's co-founder.
- "We've communicated from the very beginning…that our purpose is to elicit joy," the CEO said.
Since launching last October, Doodles has erupted in popularity to become one of the top non-fungible token collections on the market.
Doodles features 10,000 pastel-colored, squiggly drawings living on the ethereum blockchain, with the cheapest one trading at just under $17,000, or about 15 ETH.
Newly appointed chief executive Julian Holguin — who just left his post as the president of Billboard — has plans to push the NFTs beyond the $500 million in trading volume they've already seen.
"We want to create joyful experiences for people no matter what product we create, whether it's a video game, a profile picture for Instagram, the music you listen to, [or] real-life attractions," Holguin told Insider during an interview during the NFT.NYC conference Wednesday.
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But it isn't just cute JPEGs Holguin aspires for — his vision is to transform the company into a Web3 multimedia and entertainment brand that features film, music, and animation.
The company named musician Pharrell Williams as the chief brand officer this week.
"I'm a big fan of the brand," Williams said in a video message at NFT.NYC. "We're going to build from the core community outward and bring Doodles to new heights."
On the same day, Doodles announced it had also raised its first funding round led by the venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, a firm helmed by the co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian.
Doodles' in-person event during NFT.NYC saw enthusiasts and token holders wait in line for up to three hours to gain access to a colorful, real-life Doodles environment.
In the 24 hours leading up to Thursday, which coincided with the event in New York, Doodles' online sales volume surged over 1,000% to surpass $3.2 million, according to Cryptoslam data.
NFTs for an economic downturn
Despite the breakthrough year NFTs had in 2021, weekly sales have declined by more than 80% from a January peak of almost $1 billion, data from nonfungible.com shows. And the size of the total cryptocurrency market has fallen below $1 trillion dollars this month, after having topped $3 trillion last year.
Bitcoin, the most widely traded cryptocurrency, is hovering around $20,000 currently, after hitting a record $69,000 in November. A slowing economy, coupled with rising interest rates and red-hot inflation has turned investors away from riskier assets such as crypto.
Still, Holguin said the upcoming Doodles 2 collection will cost less, which will lower the barrier to entry.
—doodles (@doodles) June 22, 2022
"The economy presents a macro challenge right now for everyone," Holguin said. "But we're really diversifying our business so we're not completely tethered to the price of crypto. Plus Doodles 2 is going to be the most easily accessible project from a price perspective."
In the event of a recession, Holguin said, the last thing people will get rid of will be something like a Netflix or Spotify account — and those kinds of platforms are exactly what Doodles aims to develop on the blockchain.
Phil Rosen/Insider
"If people are at home, and don't have the means to go out and do the things they'd do if they have more disposable income, they're going to be home engaging with online content," he said. "So they'll be right there engaging with our products because we're creating easier points of entry."
He said the current rout in the digital asset market was a sign of a "big maturation process" and echoed the belief of both the founder of NFT.NYC as well as the US CEO of The Sandbox: Stronger projects with supportive communities are going to be the ones that emerge stronger than before.
"Yeah, the economy is going through a down period right now, but this isn't going to last forever," Holguin said. "Doodles is here to let everyone channel their inner child, and understand that everything's possible with the power of your imagination. We're as bullish as ever."