Behind the Masks: Actor Jordi Mollà to Launch New NFT Collection on December 08

Fresh off the sale of his “I will flood you with my flowers” NFT, artist and actor Jordi Mollà is renewing his affiliation with Raini and Krew Studios.

Mollà, whose on-screen credits include Jack Ryan, Blow and Bad Boys II, is joining forces with the NFT platform and creative studio to conduct an NFT drop called Masks. The collection features a range of unique digital masks based on a collection meticulously hand-painted by the self-taught Spanish artist, with the drop scheduled for December 8.

As an actor, Mollà has worn many faces and the collection was influenced by the personas and characters we all inhabit in our daily interactions with the world. Some 10,000 masks have been 3D-rendered, animated and tokenized, with a percentage receiving physical as well as digital redemption rights. The mint will go live for a two-hour presale window on Wednesday, December 8 at 8 pm UTC, with a public sale following from 10 pm UTC.

The winner of Mollà’s previous work automatically gained five whitelist spots for the latest collection, as well as an invite to a swish NFT event that is being hosted by Krew Studios on December 4. The Art Basel show in Miami Beach, which is part of the city’s annual Art Week, will educate attendees on the various ways in which Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) tech are being integrated into the upcoming drop.

An emerging NFT launchpad, Krew Studios is currently pursuing a raft of exclusive artist and gallery partnerships as it seeks to bridge the gap between physical and digital art. Ahead of the Masks drop, the Studio has distributed 50 Members Only whitelist passes to community members, entitling holders to access to upcoming Krew drops and events (including the Masks party), community voting, and airdrops.

As well as 50 such golden tickets, 1,000 of the Studio’s Discord members have also been whitelisted for the Masks NFT sale. The Krew team has thrown down the gauntlet to the wider public by encouraging them to join Discord and acquire their own whitelist privileges.

Raini, whose products include yield farming, a play-to-earn trading card game, and a curated NFT launchpad and marketplace, is also furnishing its token stakers with special access to the sale: some 500 mask NFTs will be made available to those who supply liquidity or stake $RAINI via the platform’s Unicorn and Rainbow pools.

Synergies between the worlds of art and NFTs continue to form, with commentators now wondering whether Quarter 3 trade volume ($10.7 billion) will be surpassed in Q4.

Blockchain’s disruptive influence on the traditional art market has been one of the year’s biggest stories, bringing works to the attention of a broader demographic of buyers while providing a tangible use case for distributed ledger technology (DLT).

Back in March, digital creator Beeple became the third richest living artist after selling his tokenized work The First 5,000 Days for $69 million at Christie’s. The event aroused unprecedented interest in the NFT market from millionaire art collectors and consortiums, as well as artists seeking to bring their creative talents to the blockchain.