“We are living more and more increasingly in a digital landscape, and NFTs become assets to communicate who you are.”
A successful businessman, author, investor and motivational speaker, Gary Vaynerchuk has a lengthy list of accomplishments and endeavors. Vaynerchuk, also known as “Gary Vee,” was born in Belarus in 1975. In 1978, he moved to the United States with his family, starting a new life in New York and then New Jersey, later graduating from Mount Ida College (now the Mount Ida Campus of UMass Amherst).
Vaynerchuk’s passion for business began during his early years, selling baseball cards and pursuing other entrepreneurial efforts. He capitalized on his various small business endeavors, including his family’s wine store, Wine Library, where he gained expertise and found success. In 2009, he co-founded media agency VaynerMedia, of which he remains CEO. He helps lead numerous other entities in his role as chairman of the VaynerX umbrella company, which includes VaynerCommerce, VaynerSpeakers, VaynerSports, The Sasha Group, Gallery Media Group and more. His other ventures include co-founding dining reservation platform Resy.
Vaynerchuk has talked about crypto and nonfungible tokens on several occasions throughout his career, with his interest seemingly dialing into the NFT world specifically. In 2021, Vaynerchuk started VeeFriends, an NFT collection and community based around his business ideals and a related conference called VeeCon.
In early 2022, Vaynerchuk launched purchasable NFTs that will grant access to Flyfish Club — an upcoming members-only dining establishment in New York City. Set to open in 2023, Flyfish Club was built by VCR Group, which Vaynerchuk co-founded.
In 2021, Vaynerchuk expressed his opinion that the overwhelming majority of NFTs from that year would end up worthless. In December 2022, near the end of a challenging year for NFTs, Vaynerchuk further reflected on the fall of the NFT space via a blog post, pointing toward short-term greed, an abundance of supply and inadequate operators as the causes.
Given his ambition and energy, Vaynerchuk will likely continue advancing his many business endeavors and perhaps pursue others. Toward the end of 2022, Vaynerchuk shared his belief that while the NFT and broader digital asset space had fallen, it would grow similarly to the internet in the early 2000s after the dot-com bubble burst. He also said that 2023 might yield more robust NFT projects than 2021 due to the dedication of the people who have stuck around to continue building. Given his prominent social media presence and frequent speaking engagements, Vaynerchuk will surely have more to add to the conversation in 2023.
Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends is starting 2023 focused on valuing the current community rather than expanding it and is aiming for a more deflationary approach to its NFTs. Additionally, Flyfish Club is expected to debut this year, boasting an 11,000-square-foot, three-floor building. A seemingly high-class experience, the seafood restaurant offers two membership types: Flyfish and Flyfish Omakase, with each membership type represented by an NFT.
