Rapper Pip has become a “self-taught expert” in crypto, and has begun leveraging digital assets to promote his music career

Hip-hop artist Thomas Pipolo has leveraged digital assets to promote his music while also putting some serious cash in his pocket in the process. Pipolo, who goes by Pip, has launched a crypto-crowdfund titled Cotton Candy Skies that netted him 6.8eth ($20,000) on its opening day, after launching a successful membership club-esque NFT promotion prior.

“I genuinely want to show other independent artists that it is possible to give your fans meaningful access to you and your music, and the opportunity to invest in your brand,” said Pipolo. “Through blockchain technology, it’s possible for artists of any caliber to maintain ownership rights of their work, establish a fruitful career in the music industry, and get their music heard.”

Pipolo has been a crypto-native rapper for some time. His NFT collection gives their owners exclusive backstage passes to his events, access to studio recording sessions, exclusive meetups and more. His NFTs are currently supported by mirror.xyz.

His NFT’s include tiers like the Platinum Pass, Gold Pass and the Silver Pass. Fans and investors can collect one or multiple NFT’s up until the allotted cap, allowing them to gain immediate access to an exclusive members-only platform.

These NFT ‘backstage passes’ as they’re called can give holders lifetime concert tickets, unreleased music, access to live studio sessions, merchandise, meet-ups and more. The first exclusive content includes early access to the first single of the Cotton Candy Skies EP titled MONACO, which drops March 25 to the public.

“The fans and supporters investing in these Backstage Passes are giving me and my team a chance to make our dreams come true. That’s why I’m so excited to launch our upcoming record label Cotton Candy Records on the blockchain, which will allow us to help other artists with their projects,” Pipolo said.

He continued on the outlook of his embracement of blockchain technology in music. Besides the idea of artists leveraging NFTs for representation of their music or concert ticketing, Pipolo believes that this is just the beginning. According to him, blockchain technology is going to change the way consumers interact with their favorite artists.

In his future plans, Pipolo plans to roll out the first “on chain” record company. Dubbed Cotton Candy Records, this will be one of the first record labels on the blockchain according to him. 

“This will be revolutionary in the Web3 space and in the music industry as a whole,” said Pipolo.

deCashed’s President Sean Murray officially announces his newest media venture in Miami last week

For the past three months, deCashed has begun covering relevant topics to a sophisticated crypto-inspired reader. Our team has been slowly creating content, graphics and logos to accompany the deCashed name. With deBanked CONNECT taking precedent over the hard launch of the website, deCashed‘s President Sean Murray officially announced the brand’s launch upon the completion of deBanked CONNECT’s preparation, in his opening remarks at the event.

The announcement came as a surprise to many of the attendees of deBanked’s Miami event. As Miami’s vibrancy attracts a younger audience, it was not surprising to see a younger deBanked reader taking an interest in digital assets. Murray even hinted at the event already having interest in sponsorships, with one legitimate sponsorship deal in the works as of now.

“Everything with the deBanked brand and business will remain the same,” said Murray. “I’ve been using and following cryptocurrency for eight years at this point. [This] will finally provide us with the journalistic runway to expand our horizons into a market we already know [with] so much untapped opportunity.”

deCashed will slowly roll out its inaugural event, taking place in the Spring.

As independent media, deCashed is still in its early days,” Murray said. “It’s live already but stay tuned. We’ve been talking about doing this for a really long time.”

Everyrealm, a company with holdings throughout the metaverse in real estate, NFTs, and gaming has announced that a host of well-known celebrities are among the latest investors in the ten-month-old company. Venture Capitalists Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase are also major players in the company’s original funding.

Everyrealm’s latest investors include The Weeknd, Will Smith, Marc Anthony, Nas, Paris Hilton, Gunna, Baby Keem, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Gene Simmons, Lil Baby, Mario Götze, Hannah Bronfman, Fara Leff, Ebonie Ward, Miye Oni, Belly, Pro Logic, NAV, and more, according to a press release from the company.

A $60 million Series A financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz was the initial influx of funds back in February for the company. Everyrealm noted that this latest round gives them access to “hundreds of millions” in capital, but declined to reveal the exact valuation.

“Having such an accomplished roster of people on our cap table is an honor and a testament to the allure of the metaverse opportunity, one where artists and entertainers can foster direct connections with their communities,” said Janine Yorio, CEO of Everyrealm.

The company used help from its Series A investors to recruit the big names to bring some cash to the table. Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund team facilitated introductions to The Weeknd, Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, Belly, Pro Logic, NAV, Hannah Bronfman, Wassim “SAL” Slaiby and Amir “Cash” Esmailian — leading to their investment. Electric Feel Ventures, the investment firm led by Post Malone’s management team, worked with Lil Baby to lead a music industry investment syndicate.

Everyrealm is known for its numerous metaverse real estate holdings and developments in leading metaverse platforms including The Sandbox and Decentraland. Everyrealm’s metaverse real estate development projects include Fantasy Islands, an ultra-luxury master planned community in the Sandbox. According to the company, Fantasy Island sold an “associated NFT” megayacht for 150 ETH ($650,000).

With hundreds of millions of dollars at their apparent disposal, Everyrealm just became a major player in the construction of the initial stages of the metaverse.

In crypto’s continued effort to create niche blockchains in competition against Ethereum and Solana, Peer Inc. has launched web3’s first metaverse-inspired distributed ledger. According to the company, this blockchain will “boast” high security and zero fees. These are major claims by Peer, as these are qualities that legacy blockchains have never been able to brag about.

“The sooner we deliver a complete suite of blockchain products, services, and resources to make it easier for builders and creators to contribute to the metaverse and earn from it, the sooner we will have an actual metaverse,” said Heath Abbate, Chief Operating Officer of Peer.

“All the raw materials will be accessible to anyone who wants to participate,” Abbate continued. “The metaverse, like the web before it, needs contributors and collaborators to grow.”

This all begs the question, how exactly will Peer’s blockchain will actually help the metaverse? The company claims that aside from an infrastructure that can support millions of transactions per second, Peer uses “nominated” Proof-of-Stake to deliver cross-chain compatibility in order to promote wide scale transactions.

The company also plans on allowing apps to be built on top of the ledger, a telltale sign of a legitimate blockchain. In the initial stages, the open-source system software company Rust will support the application development process on Peer’s ledger.

“At present, there is no coherent vision of the metaverse, and no foundational technology framework exists to enable its construction. We are building that framework now,”said Tony Tran, Peer’s Founder and CEO.

According to Tran,  the metaverse is a “three-dimensional fabric” that  acts as a digital bridge between the tangible and digital realms. This fabric, which he calls the ‘Orthogonal Fabric’, will be driven by blockchain applications and accessed through the new next-gen infrastructures.

The Peer blockchain is still in its infancy. According to the company, it was deployed on February 22  with a pre-mined total supply of 2.1 billion Peers while using the ticker symbol $PMC. Peer’s tokens will serve as a utility, store of value, and unit of exchange in the metaverse.

This idea of creating niche financial products in an attempt to prevent an overhaul or big tech takeover of an industry is new to web3, but currently a major component in the crypto’s close cousin, fintech. 

“Peer is making it possible for the world to become a super user interface,” said Tran. “Technology is about to change faster than anyone can predict and bigger than anyone can imagine.”