Tiffany & Co is offering NFTiff passes to 250 Cryptopunk holders, who will be able to purchase a gemstone-encrusted pendant depicting their pixelated avatar.
Tiffany & Co. is coming to the aid of our collector friends. Today (01/08/2022) the well-known jeweler unveiled a new program tailored for owners of Cryptopunks, called NFTiff.
The initiative was spearheaded by Cryptopunk's owner and executive vice president of Tiffany, Alexandre Arnault.
The story
In April, Arnault was surprised by a wave of interest when he posted a photo of a custom-made Tiffany pendant representing his Cryptopunk #3167. Now, up to 250 other Cryptopunks holders will be able to have a similar pendant in the image of their avatar.
Arnault said his bullish stance on NFTs stems from the fact that they are "a cultural phenomenon and are seen as an artistic medium that has important characteristics for a younger generation. They are digital, unique, well-guarded on the blockchain and obviously shareable. I'm excited about the NFT collector community-these people don't necessarily have a lot in common, but they share the same interest in this kind of art," he said.
Cryptopunks, in Arnault's words, are "the OGs" of the NFT world. The collection is limited to 10,000 unique avatars that are bought and sold on the open cryptocurrency market, on the ethereum blockchain. Owning an avatar is a badge of honor for a certain subset of people who are very wealthy or simply lucky.
For Arnault, bringing Cryptopunk to Tiffany's means both digging into his own community (many of his friends are Cryptopunk owners) and introducing the Tiffany brand to a new audience.
"These customers are obviously a bit younger than our [classic] clientele. This is an anonymous population, you don't know who owns what, but in general we understand that they are younger and with a lot of possibilities, many of them have made large amounts of money in the cryptocurrency sphere. People need to understand that a lot of things in their world are related to luxury, like desirability, scarcity, trends-they understand the ups and downs," Arnault said.
INNOVATION
Tiffany is among the first jewelers in its category to offer a bespoke jewelry service to NFT holders. NFTiff is the second NFT-related initiative for the jeweler, which acquired a Tiffany-inspired NFT from Tom Sachs in March.
"The exciting aspect for people is that you can own an NFT but you can't see or experience anything with it. We at Tiffany's give them the opportunity to turn (a Cryptopunk) into a piece of jewelry handcrafted with the utmost craftsmanship," Arnault added.
Starting this month, owners of Cryptopunks can access the NFTiff website to purchase an NFT pass that will be stored through blockchain technology. The passes can only be purchased with Ethereum and are priced at 30 Eth each, which currently means just over $50,000.
Tiffany is only issuing 250 NFTiff passes, and because some Cryptopunk holders own more than one, it only allows a maximum of three passes per person.
The pass can be exchanged for a made-to-order pendant, thanks to the buyer's Cryptopunk avatar, which will be designed by Tiffany's innovation center in New York and produced in the Cumberland, Rhode Island workshop.
Each pendant will be made of 18k rose or yellow gold and with a minimum total of 30 gemstones including, of course, diamonds. It will be accompanied by a specially designed chain with rectangular links reminiscent of pixels.
Delivery
NFTiff owners are expected to receive a digital rendering of the charms in December, while delivery of the physical jewelry is scheduled for early 2023.
Although the project is targeting only a core audience of 10,000 people and specifically 250 cryptopunks, Arnault said NFTiff "is a way to get into the lives of people who would not necessarily be Tiffany's primary customers. It's a way to get people access to our brand. I don't think we'll be in the metaverse tomorrow morning, which is where these people spend most of their time, so it's a nice way to reach out to this community without doing anything that doesn't make sense for the brand."
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