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Advisors With Philanthropic, Art-Loving, Space Geek Clients Take NoticeAdvisors With Philanthropic, Art-Loving, Space Geek Clients Take Notice

NFT auction to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital launches with SpaceX Inspiration4 Mission

Davis Janowski, Senior Technology Editor, WealthManagement.com

September 15, 2021

1 Min Read
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Inspiration4 Mission Commander Jared IsaacmanPATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

Advisors with philanthropic clients, especially those interested in art and/or NFTs, or human space travel, or giving to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in particular—or all of the above—will doubtless get a kick out of part of Wednesday’s launch of Inspriation4.

Advisors have likely been seeing a lot about NFTs, which use the same blockchain principles employed in cryptocurrency to program and record identifiers, transactions and "ownership" of a digital asset.

With its launch window set to open at 8:02 pm Wednesday, this first all-amateur-crewed mission will orbit Earth for three days aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

While it has numerous purposes, the entire mission is also a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. One small part of that overall effort is an online auction—set to begin at launch time—of some 50 non-fungible tokens, better known as NFTs, all of them space related that will go toward the $200 million money-raising effort. One hundred percent of the auction proceeds will go to St. Jude.

Billionaire and Mission Commander Jared Isaacman got the fund-raising ball rolling by writing a $100 million check directly to St. Jude—the auction and other mission-related fundraisers have only $100 million left to raise.

Related:What Advisors Need To Know About NFTs

Among the artists is crewmember and geoscientist Sian Proctor. Her piece entitled “My Genie” will be sold, along with more than four-dozen others ranging from “Toys For Tardigrades” by Hipworth and Moderna, to “Circle of Light” by Ilya.

The Los Angeles-based creative agency Subtractive and the sustainability platform Aerial organized the auction, which is being powered by Origin Protocol Inc.

About the Author

Davis Janowski

Senior Technology Editor, WealthManagement.com

Davis Janowski is a New York-based technology journalist whose work spans consumer, business and the FinTech sectors. He has also worked for two FinTech startups and as an industry analyst for market research firm Forrester.