TL;DR
Josie Bellini is an OG crypto artist and project founder who occupies a unique position, overlapping between the worlds of art and design, finance, and technology. Josie has created unique works of art in both physical and NFT formats, utilizing AR and AI along the way, and also established the CyberBrokers project, which contains a core NFT collection, expansion NFTs, and is focused on developing a gamified Web3 platform and brand.
NFTs are an area with a very direct crossover between the worlds of finance and art, with tech thrown into the mix as well, and Josie Bellini is an OG crypto artist who is positioned squarely at the point where these three worlds–art, finance and tech–meet and overlap.
Let’s take a look for context at the current state of NFTs, at Josie’s story and her position in the worlds of crypto, art, NFTs and Web3, and at some of the artwork and the more expansive project she’s created, while also considering why she remains an important and influential figure.
What’s the State of NFTs?
Bitcoin and the rest of crypto have been notching up victories over the SEC recently, with Ripple and Grayscale coming out on top in their legal cases against the regulatory body.
On the other hand, it seemed as though NFTs were dealt a blow from the SEC when the Impact Theory project was deemed to have offered NFTs that were unregistered securities. But does this latter news reflect badly on the whole NFT sector?
Well, not really. Firstly, there were dissenting SEC opinions on Impact Theory, but even aside from that, NFTs are a very broad category, and in the case of art NFTs, it’s difficult to argue that there’s any substantial difference between buying digital art and buying a physical painting.
When it comes also to metaverse and gaming items, again, these simply don’t look like securities, suggesting that some key parts of the NFT world needn’t be too concerned about regulatory disputes.
Who Is Josie Bellini?
Josie Bellini began her career in the world of traditional finance, managing portfolios at an asset management firm after having studied finance. She had already looked into Bitcoin while still a student (she graduated in 2016), and in 2017 she started investing in Ethereum, and from there became deeply involved in crypto.
Quitting finance, then studying coding but not feeling it was the discipline for her, she was attracted to art and design and began working as a designer in the crypto space, before going on to create crypto-oriented physical artwork.
This eventually led also to NFTs, a PFP-style collection within a metaverse and gaming project, AR and AI integration, and all the while with a drive to spread the word and educate audiences about crypto and its potential.
As a result of all this, Josie is not only a famous NFT artist and project creator, but is also known for promoting the technology and concepts that are central to crypto, and for doing so from an authentically finance-savvy perspective.
Notable Works
This is not a comprehensive list of Josie’s work, but introduces some of her most significant and well-recognized releases, her experiments with new technology, and some recent work.
Genesis
Created in 2017, this was the work that initiated Josie’s takeoff as an artist. Posted to Reddit, it attracted huge amounts of attention, and was first sold as an open edition physical print. Later, in 2021, a single NFT of Genesis was minted, and sold at Christie’s, along with a physical version, for $400,000.
Filter
Created in 2018, this picture and its elements–a woman staring straight at the viewer from behind a Bitcoin-branded gasmask–has become closely associated with Josie and her work. Filter also began as a purely physical piece, and later had AR elements added, and came to be minted as an NFT.
Tune In
Josie’s first NFT pieces were given away free with physical prints as part of the Tune In drop, which was released in 2019 and consisted of 21 prints with NFTs.
The People
This 2019 release incorporates both physical prints and NFTs, and shows Josie’s belief in Bitcoin as a revolutionary creation. The NFT world is primarily based around Ethereum, but Josie often creates art that references Bitcoin’s early, cypherpunk ethos.
Her
Created in 2023 for Proof Collective’s Grails III collection, Her is the first time Josie has released an artwork created partly with AI. Her is not purely AI-composed, as the 50-edition piece was customized with hand-drawn layers.
What Is CyberBrokers?
As well as creating works of art, Josie co-founded and leads CyberBrokers, an NFT project that got off to an explosive start in March 2022 thanks to the reputation and following Josie had already established in the NFT space.
It’s a collection of 10,001 distinctly arty, cyberpunk-looking characters, all 100% on-chain at the center of a metaverse-focused, gamified Web3 brand. After minting at 0.35 ETH, the collection’s floor price surged in the space of a month to around 5.5 ETH, but has–in line with the rest of the NFT market–seen ongoing price decline since then, with a current floor price a little over 0.17 ETH.
However, CyberBrokers is operational, building, and revolves around an active community of holders. There are expansion items, interactivity, and roadmap execution is ongoing.
Looking Forward
It’s unclear how NFTs will perform in the coming years, and which projects will stick around. However, in this kind of uncertain environment, Josie Bellini is well placed, as her work spans art, a PFP-style collection, and metaverse-oriented brand-building.
What’s more, she stays true to the original, Bitcoin-centered spirit of the whole crypto enterprise, and channels the financially and socially disruptive potential of the technology.
CyberBrokers and Josie’s artwork occupy different parts of the NFT landscape, and the artwork is perhaps more straightforward, as it’s just that: collectible artwork, with an established reputation and a place in crypto history. On the other hand, CyberBrokers is less predictable, since it’s building out an entire Web3 brand and ecosystem, and faces the same challenges as several other big projects with similar ambitions.
Overall though, Josie has multiple bases covered, and crypto ambitions that stretch in more than one direction.
