Buyers of the 69 mln cryo-opera unveil themselves. And they want to fund pro-NFT journalism

The buyers of Everydays - The First 5000 Days, the Crypto Art work by Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) that sold at auction at Christie’s for the record sum of $69.3 million (we have told the story in detail on these pages) have revealed their identities. So far only their pseudonyms, Metakovan and Twobadour, founders of the investment fund Metapurse, were known. They are Indians Vignesh Sundaresan (Metakovan) and Anand Venkateswaran, who have built their fortunes in the cryptocurrency world.The two revealed their identities in a lengthy blog post on their company’s blog, but they also revealed much more.

In the meantime, the reason for their purchase: “the point,” Sundaresan and Venkateswaran explained, “was to show Indians and people of color that they too can be masters, that the crypto world is a way to make power more equitable between the West and the rest of the world, and that the global south is coming.” The two then told their story. Sundaresan revealed that in 2013, when he discovered the world of bitcoin, he was penniless. Venkateswaran, on the other hand, came to this environment four years later, convinced by Sundaresan himself: the two have created their financial success by working in this area, with the creation of cryptocurrency exchange services (including a network of ATMs for bitcoins) and investments in this area.

With the Metapurse fund (“specializing in identifying projects in the early stages of implementation through the blockchain infrastructure, artworks, objects from collections, and virtual properties,” the two specify), Sundaresan and Venkateswaran have also begun investing in Crypto Art, with the idea that virtual art will be “fundamental, beautiful, digital, crypto, stored on-chain,” and especially on the basis that “digital decentralization guarantees cultural decentralization: Anyone can create art with NFT, anyone can buy it, anyone can see it, anyone can be inspired by it. Dominant cultures have a tendency to dominate, to centralize.” According to this view, Crypto Art is a way to create a space open to different cultures, lifestyles, ideologies. “An opportunity to find your tribe, it doesn’t matter where you come from,” say the two founders of Metapurse. “And that’s powerful, that’s the future.”

The two also talk about an "NFT renaissance,“ and list projects they have supported in the arts, including a number of art exchange platforms, and several virtual exhibitions. And according to them, Beeple is ”the artist of our generation. Look at the first image, top left, of the Everyday series, all the way to the one at the bottom right. The story of the 5,000 images is simple. Start with something, be genuine, be consistent, work hard, and you will succeed." Sundaresan and Venkateswaran also announced that they will raise a monument to the work, but without specifying further details.

Finally, the two digital investors have signaled their intention to support pro-NFT journalism: Sundaresan and Venkateswaran have already announced the Metapurse Fellowship, a grant that will be given to five “storytellers” who tell “fascinating stories” about the crypto world. The two are putting up $500,000 divided into five fellowships: the selected “storytellers” will be paid $100,000 per year, divided into twelve monthly payments. There are three conditions: having a portfolio of work that can already be consulted, having personally created at least one NFT, and not being “anti-coiners,” that is, being people who have demonstrated no skepticism or criticism of cryptocurrencies, crypto art, and so on. In short, the two may be for creating open spaces and decentralization, but they have already realized that to do so also requires... buying people to say how good it is.

Nellimmagine, Beeple’s work sold for $69 million

Buyers of the 69 mln cryo-opera unveil themselves. And they want to fund pro-NFT journalism

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