Trump-Biden bet led to obsession with ‘idiotic’ NFTs —Batsoupyum, NFT Collector

Batsoupyum is one of the most prolific and respected NFT and digital art collectors there is. Prior to discovering NFTs, he’d invested in Bitcoin and participated in various venture and liquid token funds. 

But crypto was more of a side interest than a full time job. That changed in late 2020 when he tried to place a bet on the Biden vs. Trump election on Polymarket. Whilst stirring the pot on the site, he ended up getting connected to Polymarket’s CEO, Shayne Coplan. 

“I went on that website and I started kind of rabble-rousing and saying stupid things, but I also would send helpful tips,” says batsoupyum. 

“Shayne hopped into my DMs and we started chatting, and he mentioned at one point that he was buying digital art on SuperRare. I was like, boy, this is really stupid. I mean, I couldn’t say enough bad things about what an idiotic idea that was. At the same time, I was kind of intrigued, kind of like watching a slow moving train wreck.”

Despite ridiculing the whole concept, it still sparked his curiosity. 

“Credit to Shayne, I was merciless against him and told him what an idiot he was but he was the one that actually got me interested enough to go and research. Timing wise, this was after the election in 2020 so around November and December. I spent a number of weeks just kind of looking at it and studying this whole space. I was convinced that there was something to it.”

Beeple’s $69 million sale 

Beeple’s historic $69 million sale of ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’ that sent shockwaves through the art and crypto worlds, and garnered worldwide attention in March 2021 was another key catalyst for batsoupyum to fortify his thinking and go all in on NFTs. 

The public nature of the auction, along with multiple competitive bidders willing to spend such high sums, triggered his belief that NFTs had to be more than just a passing fad. 

“I can’t remember exactly the date but right around that time of the Beeple $69 million ‘Everyday’ sale happened. I thought, well there were multiple bidders there, and I’m sort of a student of capital markets. My thought after that was, if there’s multiple bidders for an NFT in a very public auction for that amount of money, there’s really something here,” says batsoupyum. 

“I was already interested before that but with those two things together — being Beeple and observing capital markets, that kind of clinched it for me. I thought wow, there’s really something interesting going on here and I need to start paying serious attention.” 

He’s since become one of the most renowned collectors.

Batsoupum’s collection and 6529 ecosystem role 

Possessing one of the more desirable collections in NFTs and digital art, batsoupyum is highly respected by a huge number of artists and collectors alike. 

Some notable NFTs within his collection include 8 x CryptoPunks, 1 x Autoglyph, 2 x Twin Flames by Justin Aversano, 1 x Gazer by Matt Kane, 4 x Drifter Shoots, and multiple pieces of artists such as Beeple, Alotta Money, Claire Silver, Hackatao, Coldie and XCOPY. 

OpenSea’s new collector interface estimates one of his primary wallets, batsoupyumvault.eth wallet at 455 ETH ($1.2mil) but this is a very conservative number with its estimate valued on top collection offers only. 

“I’ve just got this really unhealthy addiction to NFTs and I’ve got way too much stuff but I love it.”  

His addiction to NFTs landed him a role on team6529, the creation of arguably NFT’s biggest advocate, Punk6529. 6529 and his team are also the founders of The Memes by 6529 collection, something batsoupyum loves being a part of. 

He recalls a meeting with 6529 in New York in 2021 as the encounter that kicked everything off.

“It came about at a bar in SoHo in late 2021. We were there for NFT NYC, one of the first big NFT events. Not coincidentally, it was probably close to the peak.”