No Fear in Trying: Unit London gallery launches NFT trading platform

Had enough of NFTs? Haven’t we all.

But this July will see the launch of another platform dedicated to selling all things non-fungible, which aims to grapple back some of the crypto-market from the tech bros. Founded by Joe Kennedy and Jonny Burt of Unit London gallery in collaboration with the cryptocurrency trading platform BTSE, Institut claims to be “the first art world-led platform for NFTs” and aims to form a “bridge between the traditional art world and emerging digital communities.”

They have bought in the ubiquitous writer/journalist/collector/dealer/artist/curator/NFT commentator Kenny Schachter to curate a physical exhibition of NFT art at the Unit London Mayfair gallery to mark the launch of the platform this July. Visitors can view the NFTs on screens (something we’re all pretty practised at now) and remotely through a virtual exhibition via new metaverse technology from Arium. The physical exhibition, titled NFTism: No Fear in Trying, brings together 100 artists, including Miao Ying, Olive Allen, and IX Shells.

Schachter has no truck with the luddites among us: “It’s a human defence mechanism to reject the unfamiliar without giving it a chance; change is hard to stomach, something that unsettles the status quo. Human nature pushes back at first blush rather than learn about and accept something new for what it is—a potential advance and step forward. NFTs are just such a transformative phenomenon, a potential revolution in the history of art and its dissemination into the collective stream of consciousness, and commerce!”

The problem is, of course, NFTs consume eye-watering amounts of energy. So Institut is apparently trying to limit its environmental impact through using a centralised custody rather than being fully decentralised. And in a bid to be that bit more straightforward, you don’t need to use cryptocurrencies in order to buy—you can use good old fashioned US dollars by providing an email address and credit card.