This article was originally written on 5/25/21 on Medium. Information in this article may be dated.
We are happy to announce that our close friend, OGN investor, and partner in our recent record-breaking NFT drop has officially joined the Origin team as a formal advisor. In addition to being an acclaimed musician and producer, Justin Blau, aka 3LAU (pronounced “Blau”) has quickly risen to fame as a thought leader in the NFT space. He’s also heavily invested in crypto with an enviable portfolio and growing recognition as a top influencer within the blockchain community.
Matt and I first met Justin in 2017 and we immediately hit it off. We were huge fans of his music, and Justin was incredibly well-educated on cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and finance. We weren’t surprised to learn that he was once a full-scholarship finance major at Washington University with an offer to join BlackRock before he dropped out to pursue music full time. In 2018, we advised Justin on the launch of Our Music Festival (OMF), the first-ever blockchain-powered music festival, which resulted in a sold-out success. Now, Justin will be advising Origin on NFTs and lending his powerful network of musicians, artists, creatives, and other contacts to us in a formal capacity.
Justin is not only a prominent investor, collector, and thinker in the NFT space, he also ranks as one of its top creators as well. His Ultraviolet NFT drop on Origin’s NFT Launchpad garnered nearly $11.7 million in a primary sale, the record for any NFT sale at the time. Justin’s other NFT drops have also generated multi-millions in primary and secondary sales as well. Through Justin, many other high-profile musicians and creatives are getting involved in the NFT space for the first time. Justin is also an investor and major participant in the DeFi space. He has appeared in too many mainstream publications and media properties to count, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, CNBC, CNN, and Wired.
We are excited to strengthen our relationship with Justin and look forward to him helping us take Origin and NFTs mainstream over the coming years. He joins Andrew Kang of Mechanism Capital, one of the preeminent thinkers in the DeFi space, as a recent addition to the Origin advisory team. Some of our long-term advisors include Joey Krug, co-founder of Augur and Eco and co-CIO of Pantera Capital, Paul Veradittakit, partner at Pantera Capital and one of the most prominent investors in the space, and Melody He, co-founder and partner at Spartan Group, one of the world’s leading crypto and DeFi investment firms.
Learn more about 3LAU
Justin Blau, aka 3LAU, is a world-renowned musician and producer, best known for his chart-topping hits and unique DJ style. Starting small at college fraternity parties, 3LAU quickly rose to fame, performing at sold-out shows around the world. Today, he has amassed over 1 billion music streams across Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube, and other platforms. Over 300 million streams are from his Ultraviolet Album. Justin is an early crypto adopter who consistently pushes the limits of what is acceptable in mainstream media. He’s been an open advocate for tokenizing music and building the investable layer of music on blockchain technology. CoinTelegraph recently named him as its 93rd most Notable Person in blockchain for 2021.
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