Gmoney on How NFTs Are Driving Transformation in the Fashion Industry
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Gmoney on How NFTs Are Driving Transformation in the Fashion Industry
NFT technology is a highly innovative and promising forward-looking technology, but currently, industry practitioners face certain uncertainties when applying this technology.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsColumn Introduction
"OG Hall" is an opinion column by the Chinese-speaking crypto punk community (Twitter @chinese_punks), where each episode invites different OG guests to share fresh industry insights and assist NFT collectors in making informed investment decisions.
Featured Guest This Episode:
Gmoney
Global top NFT influencer, advocate for commercial rights-free Cryptopunks, Ape punk holder (4500E floor), Cryptopunks OG, futurist, and NFT industry leader
Guest Introductions
Noun74: Thank you, host. Hello everyone, I'm Noun74, founder of the Chinese-speaking Cryptopunks community. It's my great honor today to welcome GMONEY—global NFT top-tier KOL, futurist, and Ape punk holder—to our community to discuss the convergence of NFTs and fashion. On behalf of the Chinese-speaking Cryptopunks community, I warmly welcome GMONEY. Beyond fashion and NFTs, we also look forward to hearing GMONEY’s thoughts on the future development, expectations, and analysis of the crypto punk community. Some co-founders and I established this Chinese-speaking crypto punk community in early 2021. Today, it stands as the highest-quality membership community in China, with members holding the most valuable assets and possessing the strongest belief in blockchain technology. We’ve also invited several prominent figures from our community—well-known personalities in China’s blockchain space—to participate in today’s AMA, anticipating a high-level exchange. Thank you.
GMONEY: Hello everyone, I’m in New York (Eastern Time). Good morning!
Disco.eth: Hi everyone, I’m Disco. I started collecting CryptoPunks around 2020. Last September, we brought NFTs to Christie’s Hong Kong auction alongside Edison Chen. Later, we founded an NFT metaverse club called Zombie Club, which now has around 50,000 members.
Token Brother: Hello everyone, my Chinese online name is “Tongzheng Yige” and my English name is Token Brother. Since 2016, I've been researching the blockchain industry. I've written several books about the metaverse and NFTs—one of which was the first book on NFTs published in mainland China. I'm also a co-founder of the Chinese-speaking CryptoPunk community and founder of Token Punk, a learning community focused on metaverse and Web3 knowledge. Thank you all.
88punk: Hello everyone, I’m Chen Xu. Since 2014, I’ve been exploring the integration of blockchain and content industries. We conducted what was likely one of the world’s earliest experiments on the Bitcoin blockchain. Now, I lead metaZ think tank and was previously co-founder of CoinDesk China. Very happy to be here today. My earliest NFT purchases were digital artworks, later followed by Punks. The returns from Punks have been astonishing. Thank you.
Host asks GMONEY: What challenges is the current fashion industry facing, and how has the emergence of NFT technology created opportunities for fashion?
GMONEY: From conversations within the fashion industry, I’ve learned that NFT technology is highly innovative and holds tremendous forward-looking potential. However, professionals in the industry still face uncertainties when applying this technology and need to deepen their technical understanding.
Host asks GMONEY: What are the advantages and disadvantages for fashion industry professionals entering the NFT space?
GMONEY: Many are concerned that their brand identity might be compromised once they enter the NFT space. Therefore, people in fashion remain cautious, needing more time to consider corporate structures and brand design. Additionally, since the NFT market is currently in a bear phase—compared to a year ago, the pace of launches has slowed—this allows teams to focus on long-term, meaningful projects.
Disco.eth: As mentioned earlier, a key innovation point for transforming fashion lies in solving counterfeiting—a persistent issue for traditional fashion items, including luxury goods like high-end cars. By integrating NFTs, the fashion industry can easily tackle forgery. Moreover, NFTs enable brands to identify and reach ideal consumer audiences more precisely, reducing marketing costs. We’re already seeing traditional fashion brands like Louis Vuitton and other consumer giants actively exploring entry into the NFT space, including collaborations with CryptoPunks. In the next two to three years, as NFT technology advances, we may soon attend spectacular virtual fashion shows in the metaverse alongside thousands of viewers.
GMONEY: NFT technology hasn’t yet reached mass adoption, but at this stage, many digital fashion project teams are observing and evaluating various technical implementations. For example, just this Thursday, we collaborated with Snowfro (founder of Art Blocks) to design a solution combining physical wearables with NFTs for 9DCC products—embedding NFT-related data directly into the 9DCC brand. This allows owners of our fashion items to experience the synergy of NFTs even in real life. We also hope such technologies will help grow vibrant communities in IRL (in real life).
Disco.eth: I fully agree with GMONEY. Looking at the overall development trajectory of NFTs over the past two to three years—from exchanges, project operations, and community growth—NFTs have achieved remarkable success. NFTs should continue to inspire greater creativity, especially in collectibles and luxury goods. In the future, people will spend increasing amounts of time immersed in the NFT space. I’m very excited to see what comes next.
Host: Regarding current digital fashion items, there’s a perception that they lack aesthetic appeal and design sophistication compared to traditional fashion. How does GMONEY view this?
GMONEY: That’s an interesting question, but frankly, it’s not really debatable. Our digital fashion items are just as aesthetically rich and textured as traditional ones. In fact, using VR or other digital technologies, we can create visual effects and features that are impossible in physical reality. So far, digital fashion has faced no resistance in terms of aesthetics—it carries the same artistic value as traditional fashion.
Host: What are your thoughts on the current state and future of CryptoPunks?
GMONEY: CryptoPunks don’t need added utility to demonstrate intrinsic value. When I first bought a Punk, I didn’t think about utility or monetization—I knew it would one day be displayed in museums. A key reason for CryptoPunks’ success is its strong underlying community. Even when prices soared to hundreds of ETH, community members and leaders didn’t treat it as a triumph, but continued steadily building—helping each other, organizing events. Thus, GMONEY believes Chinese holders of CryptoPunks are a vital part of the global CryptoPunk community, strengthening its worldwide influence. This also inspires other NFT projects to emulate CryptoPunks’ path, and encourages people to appreciate the inherent beauty of Punks.
Host: I’d also like to ask Chen Xu, as a seasoned CryptoPunk OG, what are your hopes for the project’s future development? And do you have any personal suggestions? Thank you.
Chen Xu: I see CryptoPunks from two perspectives. First, in my view, the project has already fulfilled all its intended missions. As GMONEY said, when we pioneer groundbreaking innovations—whether it’s Satoshi launching Bitcoin or us launching CryptoPunks—we complete our mission. We shouldn’t expect a project born in the earliest stages of market and technological development to continuously evolve along undefined roadmaps and compete with newer projects on technology or business models—that was never its purpose. From this angle, CryptoPunks brilliantly illuminated the early NFT era. Though not even built on a standard NFT smart contract, it provided immense inspiration and ultimately ignited the thriving NFT market we see today.
Under these circumstances, I believe CryptoPunks has completed its historical mission and thereby secured an irreplaceable and irreversible position in history and time. That’s one side.
On the other hand, some feel the CryptoPunks team has been too passive—or even complain they weren’t active for a period, especially compared to aggressive newer teams—and that the original founders eventually sold the project.
But I actually think: first, selling after mission completion is perfectly acceptable from a business standpoint.
Second, precisely because of their hands-off approach, they revealed a crucial characteristic of NFT communities—one that ensures NFTs (non-fungible tokens) won’t be classified as securities under future regulations. We’re in a global regulatory cycle for crypto markets, especially led by the U.S., crafting rules for digital assets. A key criterion is determining when FTs (fungible tokens) or NFTs become de facto securities. This regulatory shift is profoundly transformative for the market.
However, traditional securities involve founding a company with a clear project team, while other participants are merely investors—whether early-stage VCs or public market traders—all sharing investor roles. Their legal rights, responsibilities, and obligations are defined by securities law. But NFT communities are fundamentally different. CryptoPunks exemplifies this difference: after launching the NFTs, there was no clear roadmap—not hidden, but genuinely nonexistent. So no one, not even the creators, knew how the community would evolve. The direction emerged collectively from the community itself. All participants—holders, builders, contributors—are equal stakeholders deciding the project’s path. How people use Punks, leverage their influence, enhance value, or build commercial and non-commercial applications—all of this is determined organically by the community.
In other words, those who appear to simply buy or collect Punks are actually the decision-makers shaping Punk’s future and the core of the community. This duality makes such NFTs fundamentally unlike securities and therefore should not be regulated as such. This is the magic of crypto markets—the revolutionary power of NFT smart contracts creating entirely new forms of community-driven innovation, opening up futures that cannot be confined by outdated regulatory frameworks or laws. This, I believe, is the incredible transformation CryptoPunks brings to our world, to crypto markets, and to human society’s future. It’s their true, immense value. These are the two perspectives I hold on the CryptoPunks project. Thank you, host.
Host: What are your views on the future integration trend between the fashion industry and NFT technology? What are the main reasons behind your outlook?
GMONEY: Looking ahead at the next few years of NFT-fashion convergence: first, this is a major direction. NFTs will integrate with wearable fashion items—exactly what I’m doing with 9DCC right now. Second, over the next five years, the value of NFT technology will increasingly manifest in fashion—not only in consumer value, emotional connection, and virtual world usage, but also across the entire production chain and manufacturing processes, potentially leading to significant technological breakthroughs. Such advancements may well originate in Asia.
Host: Other guests are welcome to share their thoughts. Perhaps we could invite Pumpkin to share his perspective?
Pumpkin: The future fusion of NFT technology and fashion holds enormous imaginative potential. Currently, Web3 fashion items offer special effects and experiences unattainable in traditional fashion, delivering substantial value to consumers. Within the Web3 space, the combination of NFTs and fashion opens new opportunities for designers and artists to participate and gain greater benefits.
Disco.eth: I believe within five to ten years, every person will own a cold wallet. Major brands like LV will include an NFT with every product sale—an NFT serving as both warranty and anti-counterfeit certificate, plus a 3D asset usable in games. Within five years, this sales strategy will be seamless and widespread. Over ten years, tech R&D suggests that when buying clothes, you’ll own the garment’s design. Due to stricter environmental regulations like the 2030 Paris Agreement, localized 3D micro-factories in your city might allow repeated printing of your clothes. This could be the future of the fashion industry.
Host: Thank you. We’d also like to hear from Token Brother about his expectations and personal views on the convergence of NFT technology and the fashion industry over the next five to ten years.
Token Brother: Thank you, host. I firmly believe human society will inevitably transition into the digital world and enter the metaverse—a new universe designed to rival our physical reality. In this new world, fashion is indispensable.
Within the metaverse, our avatars will have fashion needs. Thus, the entire fashion industry will pivot toward this new digital frontier. Future fashion will fall into two categories: first, native metaverse fashion—original IPs and digital-native designs; second, traditional fashion migrating into the metaverse.
First, traditional fashion entering the metaverse: NFTs play a crucial role. In the future, purchasing items at physical stores may come with embedded chips. Scanning with a phone verifies ownership via on-chain data.
Second, native fashion: organic virtual wearables born in Web3 and the metaverse may expand onto the blockchain, enabling airdrops and new utilities. Whether bridging physical fashion into virtual worlds or developing native digital fashion, NFTs serve as essential tools. In the future, NFTs will play a pivotal, nearly decisive role in the fashion industry. That concludes my thoughts. Thank you.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
