NFT startups hire full-time ‘vibe managers’ to lift the mood amid crypto collapse

theguardian.com:

Don’t call it a collapse – it’s just a vibe shift.

Since January, the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has been locked in a downward spiral, with sales on one popular platform falling to less than one-seventh of their January peak, and the buyer of the so-called “Mona Lisa of the digital world” – a $2.9m NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet – being forced to sell for just $6,800.

To shore things up, NFT projects have turned to a new kind of role: the vibes manager.

Also known at some companies as a “Chief Vibes Officer” or “Director of Vibes”, the vibes manager is something of a cross between a marketer, influencer and investor relations officer, tasked with promoting NFT projects to newcomers while reassuring existing funders. The goal? To keep things positive, no matter what.

“Vibes are everything,” explained tropoFarmer, a thirtysomething Minnesota resident who was one of the first buyers of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs (one of the most hyped and expensive collections) and is an advocate for vibes management. “There are ways that you can swing trade based on the momentum that is, for the most part, built on vibes.”

Among the first to hire a vibes director was an NFT startup called Fractional, Business Insider reported. The job went to an influencer named Deeze, who a spokesperson called “a super influential commentator and tastemaker in the NFT space” and “the most public facing person at the company alongside the founder”.

Along with managing the company’s Twitter and Discord, Deeze also handles “collector relations” and is the “internal ‘vibe checker’ for events and content”, the spokesperson explained.

That kind of work is crucial for an industry hoping that the promise of social exclusivity will keep prospective investors