21/01/2022 Tom Brady's NFT agency raises $170 million in funding from crypto investors

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Did you know that Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady co-founded an NFT agency? Well he did! It's called Autograph, and you won't be surprised to find out that it's doing pretty well.

The company told TechCrunch on Wednesday that it had just completed its Series B funding round and had raised $170 million from venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, among several others. Both firms have been investing in cryptocurrency related projects and Autograph is the latest one.

So what exactly is Autograph? TechCrunch described it as "an agency go-between for celebrity athletes and entertainers looking to find a personal presence in the incredibly noisy NFT world."Some celebrities and athletes have gotten blowback from fans and the public at large over their involvement in cryptocurrency or NFTs, and TechCrunch believes Autograph's goal is to help those people get involved in NFTs in a more "curated" way.

EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - JANUARY 02:  Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrates a successful two-point conversion in the fourth quarter of the game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on January 02, 2022 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Tom Brady's NFT startup Autograph just raised $170 million in capital. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Autograph has an impressive roster of athlete partners. Beyond Brady, they've also partnered with Tiger Woods, Simone Biles, Derek Jeter, Naomi Osaka, Usain Bolt, Wayne Gretzky and Tony Hawk. Brady, the co-founder of Autograph, is on the board of the company, as is Abel Tesfaye, who is more commonly known as The Weeknd.

While Autograph told TechCrunch that it started a partnership with DraftKings over the summer, they are mainly focused on athletes as individuals. Looking at their list of athlete partners, only a few of them play a team sport, and every single one of them has gone beyond their sport and moved into the larger cultural consciousness. Working with athletes who don't just exist in the sports space and who have a broad base of appeal appears to be their strategy.

Arts

https://sports.yahoo.com/tom-bradys-nft-agency-raises-170-million-in-funding-from-crypto-investors-164349652.html

Interesting NFTs
Right Place & Right Time (bitcoin hourly price offset)
Each day, a new composition for the Master is generated autonomously using a data feed of Bitcoin's last 24 hours of price action. Each hour's price programmatically controls rotation, scale, and position of a correlating layer. Astute viewers will surmise the day's price volatility simply by examining the artwork. While the daily image generation is the result of autonomous API calls, utilizing an algorithm the artist wrote, the artist has chosen to retain a control token. This token allows him to fine-tune variables associated with his algorithm, in addition to addressing aesthetic concerns within the life-cycle of the artwork. Layer state, alpha, hue, saturation, and brightness are elements the artist has retained control of in order that this artwork remain a living work-in-progress. An earlier iteration of this artwork was featured as a nightly projection mapping video on the face of the Daniels Fisher Clocktower, as part of ETH Denver 2020. Access to this and additional exclusive content awaits the master token owner at the artist's NFT Portal: https://collect.mattkane.com/minted-works/right-place-right-time-bitcoin-hourly-price-offset/
Source Code for the WWW
OWNER: Sir Tim Berners-Lee Sir Tim Berners-Lee, b. 1955 Source Code for the WWW 1990-1991 Work includes: Original archive of dated and time-stamped files containing the source code, written between 3 October 1990 and 24 August 1991. These files contain code with approximately 9,555 lines, the contents of which include implementations of the three languages and protocols invented by Sir Tim; HTML (Hypertext Markup Language); HTTP (Hyper Transfer Protocol); and URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), as well as the original HTML documents that instructed early web users on how to use the application Animated visualization of the code being written (Video, black & white, silent), lasting 30 minutes 25 seconds A Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) representation of the full code (A0 841mm wide by 1189 mm high), created by Sir Tim from the original files using Python, with a graphic representation of his physical signature at lower right A letter written in the README.md file (in “markdown” format) by Sir Tim in June of 2021, reflecting upon the code and his process of creating it Non-fungible Token ERC-721 Minted on June 15, 2021, ed. 1/1 Smart Contract Address: 0x86ade256037d80d6d42df8df96d5be21cd25bd8f
BTC POWER
BTC POWER
Ushibori in Hitachi Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) Ushibori in Hitachi Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji 1832 - Japan
CryptoKitties
Ugh! I'm Kitty #453496. I believe that one day cats will rule this planet. I'm often described as despicable, and I own it. I hope we can be pawmates.