The crypto collectors

Goodbye baseball cards, hello NFTs [AngelList Logo]( [View Online]( [Collectors rush to non-fungible tokens]( Nyan Cat [YouTube]( Fungible (adj.) — able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable. An explosive new segment of the crypto market has art collectors worldwide reaching for the closest dictionary. Sales of [non-fungible tokens]( (NFTs) exploded in 2020, surpassing $250M, and show no sign of slowing. NFTs act as blockchain equivalent of a [certificate of authenticity]( for any piece of digital media imaginable (GIFs, videos, tweets, games, celebrity selfies). They’re particularly popular among [art collectors and sports fans]( looking to build digital collections. Since its beginning in 2017, the “[newest speculative game in town]( has provided artists with a new way to support their craft. One artist, who goes by Beeple, made $3.5M by selling 20 pieces in December alone. (Naturally, [Christie's auction house]( wants in on the action.) Not unlike the #wallstreetbets/GameStop saga, though, things are getting a little … bananas. Lindsay Lohan sold a photo of herself for $17k — and then juiced the price by tweeting [her support for DeFi](. People are bidding hundreds of dollars for tweets from [Elon Musk]( and Mark Cuban, who recently declared that the “[Store of Value Generation]( is here to stay. A [clip of LeBron James blocking a shot]( sold for $100k last month. Some artists point out that the hottest new crypto trend isn’t such great news for the environment. One calculated that the release of one piece of art with NFT led to more carbon emissions than her [entire studio emitted in 18 months](. Also falling victim: [baseball card collectors](. Turns out, one of the first videos posted on the now-defunct platform Vine [might have been a better bet](. [View Story]( Hot startups hiring now 🔥 [SafeGraph]( - We predict the past - data for physical places. [Explore 16 jobs](. [Alice Financial]( - Give your employees a raise, for free while lowering your company's payroll taxes. [Explore 6 jobs](. [Roadtrip]( - An audio social network for sharing and discovering music. [Hiring engineers](. [Roblox]( - Build and share your own multiplayer video games. [Explore 221 jobs](. Funding and acquisitions Credit card company Petal secured $126.6M in debt financing backed by Silicon Valley Bank and Trinity Capital. The [company aims to make financial services more accessible to the masses]( especially those overlooked by traditional banks. Petal amassed 100k customers in five years. The company previously secured more than $300M in debt and raised more than $100M. Dispo, [a no-frills photo-sharing app co-founded by YouTube star David Dobrik]( raised a $20M Series A led by Spark Capital. The company amassed 10k users and plans to release its first Android app. Burrow raised a $25M Series C led by Parkway Venture Capital to [support the expansion of its line of modular furniture](. The products are designed to fit in a variety of spaces. The company, a Y Combinator alumnus that previously raised $30M, launched 19 new products in the past year, including a modular shelving system. AngelList Weekly 90 Gold St San Francisco, CA 94133 [Unsubscribe]( | [Update preferences](