In a rare tie between traditional banks and token cartoon characters, Anchorage Digital Bank, the storage tech startup that became a national trusted bank last year, is now the custodian of a set of tokens not fungi owned by iHeartMedia which include a CryptoPunk, a Mutant Ape, and several Quirkies.
A New York-based broadcast and podcast company, iHeartMedia, has purchased NFTs — tokens representing digital artwork — and created podcasts that feature characters based on those tokens. The first, “Prop Culture”, started in June. It’s hosted by writer, producer and TV voice actor Matt Harrigan (who performs “Loot Bag #2020”), director and writer Jiyoung Lee (the voice of “Quirkies #1988”) and TV producer and musician Dave Bonawits. (“Unusual #307”).
“Not only did it allow us to experiment with Web 3.0 by creating these new experiences to entertain audiences, but it also allowed us to explore how NFTs, art, content and fan communities interact together” , said Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group.
Byrne also sees NFTs as a way to protect digital rights.
“I think that’s what makes NFTs so interesting and so powerful,” he said. “When we think of content, intellectual property, art, ownership, is that you have a digital asset related to a work of art or content that is demonstrably unique, rare, and held on a decentralized public ledger and on a chain of your choice All of this is run to some extent in a trustless, permissionless framework It will be interesting how this plays out, but ultimately it will provide us with an interesting perspective as content creators to experiment with.
He does not know if iHeartMedia will sell its NFTs in the future. For Non-Fun Squad’s NFTs, “the primary goal was to focus solely on creating great IP and content for the enjoyment of our audience.”
San Francisco-based Anchorage Digital Bank started as tech startup providing crypto custody services. Last year he received a national bank charter of trust from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. iHeartMedia chose Anchorage as its custodian because it has the technical expertise to keep NFTs secure and there is peace of mind in partnering with a federally chartered bank, Byrne said.
Anchorage already has NFTs in custody. For example, this is the CryptoPunk Visa custodian purchased in August for $150,000.
“In a way, Visa forced our hand. They came up to us jokingly and said, wouldn’t it be great if we did this? said Diogo Monica, co-founder and president of Anchorage Digital. “And we were like, OK, we’ll support you. And so they were the first to come in and get us through this.
After Visa’s announcement was released, other customers and businesses also asked Anchorage to keep their NFTs, Monica said.
“Think similarly that you wouldn’t really leave a Picasso in your garage,” Monica said. “If an NFT happens to be rated at a certain number, you now need an institutional way to store it. The same way you would store your Picasso in a temperature-controlled, humidity-controlled safe, you would store also an NFT in an institutional bank.
NFT art seems to have remained popular even during the crypto winter this summer.
According crypto.news, the average price of NFT art is $232.24. Over $317 million worth of NFTs have been sold in the last 30 days.
News site’s analysis of CoinMarketCap data on NFT collections found that the top 20% of NFT artists earn more than $96,000 a year.
The most expensive NFT collection is Bored Ape Yacht Club, which had an average price per NFT of 101.96 Ether, or $108,948, over the past 30 days. More than half of all NFT purchases are made with Ether, according to the site.
“Like traditional art, the value of NFTs can be very subjective,” a spokesperson for crypto.news said. “However, NFTs can offer owners something more, as in the case of the Bored Ape Yacht Club where owners have access to an exclusive community. This exclusivity can drive values even higher.
Valuable NFTs are a strong use case for Anchorage’s technology, alongside other digital assets including bitcoin and ether, Monica said.
“Imagine having an NFT on your computer that’s worth a million dollars,” he said. “It’s a password you have that’s worth a million dollars. It’s not something anyone wants to do on their own. There is a high risk of cyber theft.
Anchorage offers multi-person integrity, which means no one in Anchorage or working for Anchorage customers can move any of the NFTs.
“That means they’re protected against theft,” Monica said. Customers decide how many and which people are allowed to do anything with NFTs.
Anchorage stores assets in hardware security modules that are offline; at no time are they directly connected to the Internet.
In April, Anchorage signed a CCO Consent Order in which it agreed to take certain steps to improve its bank secrecy law and anti-money laundering programs.
“We like the fact that we’re a regulated bank,” Monica said. “We like that there is scrutiny. We love that we’re actually audited by the oldest banking regulator in the United States. The past six months have shown a massive flight to safety during the bull market. People fly safe and flying safe means flying in Anchorage under a clear regulatory charter.