How an Overland Park blockchain creator grew $1.4M in 17 minutes with ‘Magic Mushrooms’

More than 3,300 individuals entered the biotic metaverse, becoming members of the exclusive Magic Mushroom Clubhouse.

“I dropped everything for this project, and then we ended up selling out in 17 minutes,” said Brett Malinowski, the creator of the non-fungible token (NFT) profile picture project, Magic Mushroom Clubhouse. 

“It’s this new wave of NFTs where people use these animated pictures as their profile picture on Twitter or Instagram,” Malinowski explained, noting that his team designed and built 9,200 generative art pieces of their magical mushrooms — with special features that determine each NFT’s rarity and value. 

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What is an NFT?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique digital tokens that serve as proof of ownership of an asset, and cannot be replicated. NFTs use blockchain technology, which acts as a digital record of all transactions related to the NFT on a vast network of computers.

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Each NFT sold at 0.05 Ethereum ($150 USD), resulting in their initial sales making about $1.4 million in a matter of minutes. In all following sales of the Magic Mushroom Clubhouse NFTs, the team makes 5 percent on royalties. 

“We actually had someone sell [their NFT] for $30,000 on the secondary market, so that person did very well,” Malinowski noted. “It’s similar to gambling in a way, because you’re getting a random NFT. You might get a really rare one; or you might get one with the most basic traits. But even the most basic one right now is worth about $500, so you still did really well from an investment perspective.”

Click here to read the backstory of the Magic Mushroom characters.

Upon selling out within 17 minutes of its public launch, the project cracked the top 20 NFT campaigns on OpenSea — the largest, worldwide NFT marketplace.

“That definitely established us as one of the top projects, and our future ambition is to be a top 10 project,” he shared. “We’re working on that every day.”

At the end of the day, buyers are investing in digital art, Malinowski said in layman’s terms. 

The question he most often gets: Why not just screenshot the Magic Mushroom Clubhouse art and use it for one’s profile pictures?

“The cool thing about NFTs is that it’s registered on the blockchain and directly connects to a person’s [cryptocurrency] wallet; so they can prove that they have the original,” Malinowski said. “Why are baseball cards worth $100,000? It’s the perceived value that people put into things. … NFTs are just that but in a digital world. As more and more of our lives move online, it’s only going to be more prevalent to ‘flex’ on the internet — in my opinion.”

Creating community and utility 

The Magic Mushroom Clubhouse team created a community fund for the project’s growth. The goal of the fund is to use it for promotions, development of future merchandise, partnerships, giveaways, and community building in general, Malinowski explained.

One way they have already built value for their community is through “Shroom Scouts” — an adventure that drives the price of the NFTs up and also brings mushroom holders incentives and utility. The objective of the adventure is for NFT holders to complete a set of tasks to be rewarded with badges. Badges then would be tradable on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing users to build a greater investment.

“We really value our community, so putting them first in our minds is very important to us,” Malinowski shared.

Click here to check out Brett Malinowski’s YouTube Channel where he explains NFT utilities. 

Medicinal mushrooms

Similar to the innovation of blockchain technology, Malinowski and his team are interested in the innovation of medicine, he shared.

“We are really passionate about the medicinal benefits of mushrooms,” Malinowski said. “We felt this was a really good way to help that movement move forward into a positive space.”

The Magic Mushroom Clubhouse team donated $50,000 to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) for medicinal mushroom research.

“That is something that we will continue to do with our royalties and any other business ventures that come with building this brand,” Malinowski said, noting that MAPS has joined Magic Mushroom Clubhouse’s social media audience for Q&A sessions. “… We have a good partnership with them now, so that’s one of the staples of our project.”

Brett Malinowski, Magic Mushroom Clubhouse

Kansas City’s next steps?

NFTs and cryptocurrency can be used in a vast variety of ways, and Kansas City needs to start utilizing them, Malinowski said. 

“This is 100 percent of the future,” he said. “This is a better technology for finance… and it’s all digital, so you don’t have to worry about third party banks or insurance companies screwing you out of your money for whatever reason — like you can’t be stigmatized from getting a loan because of your race. There are no credit checks. It’s all online and verified on the blockchain.”

The first place people can start is buying their first form of cryptocurrency, whether that be Bitcoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin, he continued. 

“Get familiar with the process, set up your Ethereum wallet and then you’ll be able to go shopping,” Malinowski said. “There are infinite different ways to use cryptocurrency. Say we were redoing our school’s infrastructure in Kansas City — you could register the kids’ ID system on the blockchain. There’s infinite possibilities.”