A 22-year old digital prodigy has used the magic of NFTs to help Brit Award-nominated artists D-Block Europe earn $8,000 in just 48 hours Online thought leader Zack Ahmed helped the London-based group snare this bumper windfall for a set of four digital portraits. And he says this crazy new online marketplace is only just getting started. “People would traditionally say art is a poor man’s job,” says Zack. “But with NFTs, I think we’ve shown that this simply isn’t the case.”
Zack has long been a champion of creatives, helping them navigate opportunities in the ever-expanding digital space. For instance, in 2018 he was behind one of the UK’s first-ever pay-per-view concerts. He’s also worked closely with labels to bring traditional assets like album covers into the modern 21st-century space through animation.
Zack combines a digital native’s easy fluency with the online space with robust old-school business instincts. Young Adz, one half of the Brit Award-nominated Lewisham group, met Zack Ahmed in his early days and was taken by the young man’s adroit feel for this unusual new frontier in business. “Zack got me into the NFT world by introducing me to the gallery scene,” says Adz. “I feel like NFTs are the perfect world for me, due to my interests in both gaming and music.”
“Zack understands the future,” says an impressed Adz. Crucially, Zack introduced Adz to his friend Alex Masmej, co-founder and CEO of Showtime. “Zack has been stellar in getting big-name artists excited about NFTs,” Alex Masmej told us. “Our partnership with Young Adz was really successful and set the foundation for all creators wanting to break into this new industry.”
Zack’s very own NFT masterpiece—a witty photoshop of him chilling out on Mars with NASA’s Perseverance Rover and a SpaceX Starship—just sold to one of the world’s biggest NFT collectors, Dubai-based 3F Music.
“Sure, there’s loads of hype about NFTs out there,” cautions Zack. “But artists should do their research, and don’t be glum if their NFT doesn’t sell right away. Everybody should get involved in this new space, it can positively and significantly impact society. Caution is required, but know that it’s not just a gimmick. This is a new frontier—nobody is an expert, and if they say they are, they’re probably lying. But for many artists who’ve seen their world turned upside down by the pandemic, this is maybe the only way out.”