A partnership between TIME Magazine and Grayscale that will result in the release of a new video series exploring the cryptocurrency space was announced via Twitter by Grayscale’s CEO, Michael Sonnenshein.
Like Tesla, Time Magazine will be holding the BTC received as a payment for the production of the series on their balance sheet instead of exchanging it immediately for fiat currency, a move that sparked criticisms among crypto enthusiasts when done by some personalities in the past.
The decision to be paid in Bitcoin and to hold it comes weeks after the launch of a special collection of digital covers in the form of NFTs, which Time Magazine auctioned to raise over $440k.
Thrilled @Grayscale is partnering w/ @TIME on a new video series coming this summer explaining the #crypto space.
Equally as important, @KeithGrossman & @TIME has agreed to be paid in #Bitcoin – and will hold the $BTC on their balance sheet. A first for our media partnerships!
— Sonnenshein (@Sonnenshein) April 12, 2021
Not only was the main piece of this NFT collection “Is Fiat Dead?”, but the company also started looking for a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who was comfortable with cryptocurrency, which shows an increasing interest in Bitcoin and digital assets by one of the biggest publications in the world.
The job listing read “The media industry is undergoing a rapid evolution. TIME is seeking a Chief Financial Officer who can help guide its transformation”, a statement that reflects the reality of several industries that have started actively investing in cryptocurrencies over the past years.
MicroStrategy Will Pay Board of Directors’ Bonuses in BTC
As cryptocurrency adoption continues to grow among companies, MicroStrategy has announced that it won’t be using dollars to pay bonuses to its board of directors.
The announcement was made via the company’s official website in which the 8-k form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was shared with investors.
The form states that:
“Going forward, non-employee directors will receive all fees for their service on the Company’s Board in bitcoin instead of cash. In approving bitcoin as a form of compensation for Board service, the Board cited its commitment to bitcoin given its ability to serve as a store of value, supported by a robust and public open-source architecture, untethered to sovereign monetary policy.”
Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy founder and CEO, is a long-time Bitcoin supporter who has referred to BTC as a “moral, economic, and technical imperative”.
He has been a promoter of the currency among corporations, participating in summits like “Bitcoin for Corporations” in his mission to “fix the balance sheets of the world”.
New York Stock Exchange Launches NFT Collection
In a day already filled with Bitcoin news, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced via a Linkedin post by Stacey Cunningham on Monday 12th that it would be launching its first NYSE NFT collection.
The collection is designed to celebrate the first trades of listings like Spotify, snowflake, Unity, DoorDash, Roblox, and Coupang, with new NFTs being planned as new, “Innovative” companies join the exchange.
In the post, Cunningham stated,
“Only one of those messages marks the NYSE First Trade: the exact moment a company became public, creating an opportunity for others to share in their success. The NYSE First Trade NFT memorializes that unique moment in a company’s history.”
The message he refers to in the post is one of the messages that make part of the first trade of each of the companies shown in each NFT.
These NFTs can be acquired by using Crypto.com’s recently launched NFT marketplace, which has continued to gain popularity over the past few days by launching exclusive NFTs in partnership with celebrities like Boy George and Snoop Dogg.
NFTs are becoming far more mainstream, but some questions remain about the long-term viability of digital assets that rely on ephemeral value. For the moment, it looks like 2021 is the year of the NFT, and more excitement in the NFT market is likely to come.
