Founder, SuperRare, New York
This was undoubtedly the year that NFTs hit the mainstream – but the market for these encrypted digital files has been gradually developing for almost a decade. John Crain co-founded SuperRare, a marketplace for buying and selling digital art as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, all the way back in 2017 – it went online the following year. It also now functions as a social network for both artists and collectors, with an activity feed and featured profiles. The platform has an open application process for artists, whose works are reviewed by a team of curators, but in August this year the company launched a new feature which allows community members to vote on and create their own ‘SuperRare Spaces’: digital storefronts where they can release and market their own NFTs. Crain, who started out in advertising before taking the plunge into the world of cryptocurrency, remains CEO of SuperRare.
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