FROM SOLANA TO THE SWAMP: Candy CEO Tad Smith Joins The BAYC Hours Before The Platform's Home Run Of An NFT Drop!

Professional athletes are famous for their pregame rituals and superstitions. Some refuse to wash their lucky socks, while others eat the exact same meal before every game. As it turns out, Candy CEO Tad Smith has a pregame tradition of his own before stepping up to the plate for a platform’s first drop, buying a Bored Ape!

Earlier today, sports and entertainment collectibles company Candy held its first NFT drop in over a year on Solana under the leadership of Smith, who officially took over the platform back in May.

 

 

While Smith and the entire Candy team were understandably nervous ahead of their first ever drop on a brand new blockchain, Smith eased his nerves by suiting up and joining the Swamp.

Smith purchased Bored Ape #6902, a five trait, brown fur primate with a tuxedo tee and an aquamarine background for 10.18 Eth, or approximately $19,000 USD, through Yuga Labs' over-the-counter trading desk, Grails OTC.

 

“@CandyDigitalhas a big day today so I thought to dress up for the occasion,” he tweeted after making his new primate his PFP.

 

The Ape turned out to be a pretty good luck charm for Smith, as Candy's MLB Base Series ICONS drop sold out in seconds and was a total home run with the community.

“We appreciate all who participated in @CandyDigital ‘s pilot drop (and our first drop of any kind in a year),” he said.  “As expected, we identified a few glitches here and there (check out flow, slow loading of credits, email confirmations, slow loading of items in collections, and the like) and fixes to those are well underway. That said, having everything sold out in a few seconds was a great http://Candy.io comeback story for which we are thankful to all of you.”

 

 

With today's Bored Ape purchase and Candy's sellout, it's clear that Smith is all in on digital collectibles, which is saying something considering that, before entering the NFT space, he served as CEO of the  auction house Sotheby's.

Earlier this year, Smith took to the timeline and laid out his thesis on what makes a great digital collectible, and it's clear from today's drop and Ape purchase that he's putting both his money and his time into what he believes.

“My view is that the sustained value of digital collectibles of all kinds requires transparency, security, liquidity, scarcity, and desirability. http://Candy.io intends to provide all five of those benefits for past and future fans. Agentic and #AIcommerce will cause velocity and value to soar where crypto rails make transactions easy and clear digital ownership and rock solid authenticity exist.”

 

 

The Gazette will continue to follow Smith as he builds Candy and will let you know when the platform holds another drop. Stay tuned for updates!