Branding the blockchain may seem like something of a daunting task, to say the very least, but for one ambitious entrepreneur the move into championing the crypto space has launched his business into the metaverse.
The industry has been beset by issues, from environmental concerns over the mining of bitcoin, to the controversies over trust, among individual investors but more pertinently from governments, with China the biggest player banning crypto altogether.
But Anthony Logan, founder of global brand agency Noir, told Arabian Business: “As transformative an innovation as cryptocurrency is, people remain the primary users, and people require trust. The majority of crypto investors are not capable of analysing the code of each new protocol or token. The success of these projects depends much less on the features built into the product, but more on the meaning behind their brand and how it impacts the world.
“At Noir, we are helping ambitious teams articulate what their complex protocol does, telling their story to the world and helping them build communities who feel connected to their vision ahead of their token launch.”
The hype around cryptocurrencies certainly isn’t going away. The world’s largest digital token, bitcoin, smashed through its all-time high recently, surpassing $66,000 per unit, making it the sixth most valuable asset on the planet today with a market cap of $1.223 trillion.
Logan explained how he was involved in marketing the tech sphere in his native England, before being forced into a change of direction. The 34-year-old said: “When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, we were hit quite badly and we ended up losing over 70 percent of our clients in the space of a week and all of our recurring revenue contracts were cancelled.
“I was living in Manchester at that time and I felt quite helpless watching my business fall apart, so I decided if we were going to be working remotely for the next year then I may as well leave and try and find some new clients rather than just sit still and watch us fail. So I sold everything – my car, my apartment, the office and went traveling.”
But this was no gap year, this was a journey of survival for the business he had built up over the previous five years. A controversial move maybe to be crossing the globe during a worldwide pandemic, but Logan defended his decision.
“I left at the end of last May (2020) and I visited 21 countries in total throughout last year. I went all around Europe. I stuck within the restrictions, I was careful, I did PCR tests everywhere I went, but I didn’t believe in just giving up and letting my business fall apart,” he said.
“When I went to Portugal I was lucky enough to be introduced to key opinion leader in blockchain, Charles Read, who had just set up a venture capital firm called Rarestone. Noir spent the next four months building the Rarestone brand and working alongside their global team to form a long-term partnership.”
Rarestone has quickly become one of the blockchain industry’s top-performing funds. This partnership introduced Noir into the world of blockchain. In the last year, since Covid, cryptocurrency has grown rapidly, which has meant a huge influx in new Web3.0, DeFi, NFT and mining projects with many new digital tokens launching every month.
Noir and Rarestone are now incubating, investing and launching Web3 and DeFi projects together, offering full end-to-end incubation for early stage teams who not only need to refine their product and technology, but also their narrative and brand.
Logan explained that these steps have completely changed the business model and since leaving the UK, Noir has done nearly four-times the revenue. But the change wasn’t about to stop there as his somewhat nomadic life was about to lead him to the United Arab Emirates, and specifically to Dubai.
“By October I ran out of places to travel to because of new restrictions and many of our clients had mentioned that Dubai had great opportunities in blockchain. So I decided to go for it, like I had been previously. I had my suitcase, my laptop and my whole team working remotely, so I decided to come to Dubai,” he said.
Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are going to change the way we do everything.
The UAE has issued a number of reforms in recent times, designed to attract talent to the country, including Golden Visas, freelance visas, retirement visas and 100 percent foreign ownership of companies.
With his business now thriving, Logan admitted he is happy to call the emirate and the country home.
He said: “The UAE has established itself as a global hub for innovation, largely due to the policies framed by regulators in the country, who understand that the world is increasingly adopting cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. This was the perfect place for a new chapter of Noir. There really is nowhere else in the world with the same amount of entrepreneurial energy, support and incredible lifestyle. I knew instantly that this is where I wanted to live and work.”
The global blockchain market size is expected to grow from $3 billion in 2020 to $39.7bn by 2025.
“We are now working purely with blockchain, Web3.0, & DeFi companies, and I really believe in these projects. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are going to change the way we do everything, it will revolutionise healthcare, finance, money, even data and misinformation,” said Logan.
“Everything is being disrupted. It’s quite like when the internet first started. We had very little idea of how much opportunity and innovation was yet to come. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are exactly the same, they have been around for quite a while now, but we are still very early into the innovation cycle.”
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