- PROOF’s CEO, Kevin Rose, announced the partnership on Twitter
- The collaboration aims to expand the brand beyond the web3-native audience.
PROOF, the company behind the leading NFT project Moonbirds, has signed a partnership arrangement with the United Talent Agency (UTA), one of Hollywood’s major talent agencies. PROOF’s Co-Founder/ CEO Kevin Rose announced the partnership at Friday’s just concluded Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The CEO, Kevin Rose, stated that the partnership’s objective is for the Moonbird brand to be known globally and not only in the web3 space. And in his tweet on January 6, he also noted that the company is already working on upcoming partnerships that users will love, and the company is excited to kickstart the new year with a bang.
In its statement to Coindesk, UTA noted that the partnership would help PROOF expand its reach through partnership arrangements, licensing, merchandising, sponsorships, and more.
Founders Kevin Rose, an early Facebook and Twitter investor, and designer Justin Mezzell founded the NFT-focused company in February 2022. The company’s NFT projects, Proof collective and Oddities NFT collection, can be found in the organization’s catalog.
“What does UTA bring to the table?” Kevin Rose said. They employ 1,400 people and work in cinema, television, music, video games, sports, books, branding and licensing, speaking, marketing, fine arts, broadcasting, and other areas. After meeting with several agencies, it became evident that UTA is ideally positioned to help us expand our brand into new regions.
Increasing Opportunities in a Variety of Fields
Rose clarified the move further, stating that UTA would work on PROOF’s behalf to choose, arrange, and execute opportunities for collaborations and development in various sectors.
The Moonbirds project, based on Ethereum and launched in April 2022, is made up of 10,000 avatar NFTs with an 8-bit owl style. According to CryptoSlam statistics, it has produced around $619.5 million in secondary sales.
According to this number, the Moonbirds collection is the eleventh most-sold collection on the NFT market, with Doodles in twelfth place with $553 million in sales and CloneX in tenth place with $794.9 million in sales. However, Moonbirds’ 24-hour sales volume has dropped by 57.86%, with $442,747 worth of Moonbirds NFT changing hands within that time frame. This is despite UTA’s ostensibly upbeat declaration.
On the other hand, trading volumes have surged by 63.74% in the last seven days. Moonbirds’ action is consistent with recent trends in which other prominent businesses in the NFT market have sought deals in Hollywood. For instance, Larva Labs, which eventually became CryptoPunks, was the first to pave the way in September 2021 by signing an agreement with UTA to represent the company’s intellectual property in television and movies, video games, licensing, and publishing.
The following month, Yuga Labs, which now controls CryptoPunks, joined on board by signing a deal with UTA to market the intellectual property of the Bored Ape Yacht Club in several genres such as cinema, television, music, and video games. Before PROOF’s partnership with UTA, the most recent example of such a transaction was the agreement between WME, a rival of UTA, and the NFT startup Boss Beauties.
Under the leadership of Lesley Silverman, UTA’s web3 head, the Califonian-based Agency is expanding its web3 portfolio. In addition, it is involved in other notable collaborations, including its partnership with Diana Sinclair and its April 2022 partnership with the Women-led NFTs Deadfellaz and CryptoPunks.
Conclusion
Most of UTA’s activities result from the company’s announcement earlier in October. The company shared that it intends to increase investments in web3 startups owing to its collaboration with the investment firm Investcorp.
