REGINALD GRARBS

“I now have all these friends that are artists, and the energy that I get from them is so immensely fulfilling.”

Reginald Grarbs is a collector and patron of the NFT arts. Although he started buying Bitcoin early (and selling too early, by his own admission) and was excited about anything blockchain-related, he nevertheless was uncomfortable spending his hard-earned ETH on NFTs early on.

Then he began looking at Art Blocks and researching the artists whose work he liked and who clearly not only believed in their art – but also in the tech behind it.

For Reginald, it’s always been about the art, but he also cares about how active somebody is in the community. As for himself, he had never been active on Twitter until he began collecting.

“It’s like no one ever followed me on Twitter prior to collecting NFTs. And all of a sudden, you have all these people following you… and all of a sudden, the artist reaches out to you, starts DMing you, and starts telling you about the piece…”

For someone who might previously have spoken to a gallery assistant or owner but rarely, if ever, the artist, this was mind-blowing.

“I now have all these friends that are artists, and the energy that I get from them is so immensely fulfilling, but the community is so much more fulfilling.”

Reginald has never seen his collecting as a business but rather as an investment in artists. There are some artists whose work he discovered early and who have become prominent in the NFT art space. “It just makes me feel good, and it makes me feel like happy that I was part of that journey and helped them and was able to support them and be a patron,” he shares.

Reginald likes to display his art, and some prints line the walls of his study. “Until we get our augmented reality glasses, and we can see the digital stuff through the glasses, I think we’re going to want to display it in the real world.”

Reginald believes crypto is undergoing a renaissance right now and feels optimistic about the underlying tech. Those who are around now are building a different and more equitable, just society, and Reginald is very much part of that.