Fasttoken FTN Brings Fastex’s ftNFT YoCerebrum Awards to Malta: The ‘Oscars of Web3’

Black-tie tuxedos. Elegant gowns. Spicy dance performances. A glittering awards show that celebrates creative triumphs, attracting the who’s-who of the industry.

You’d be forgiven for thinking this was the Oscars or the Grammys. But the event was something else entirely: The ftNFT YoCerebrum Awards, now in its third year, and for the first time taking place in Malta. The Academy Awards honors the best in film, the Emmys honors the best in television and now the ftNFT YoCerebrum honors the best in Web3 creativity.

Many of the winners, unaccustomed to high-profile recognition in the Web3 space – much less in such a glamorous setting – were emotional and even overwhelmed. “I really don’t know what to say,” said the winner of the night’s first award, Best Phygital NFT. “It’s super crazy.”

Like all of the night’s winners, the artist known as “Paradigmstories” walked off the stage with two awards: a 10-pound “Bahamut” trophy (in honor of Fastex’s layer-1 blockchain) and 2,024 Fasttokens (FTN), worth roughly $6,000 at the time.

That award was just the first of many. Organized by the ftNFT platform – part of the Fastex ecosystem – awards across 15 categories celebrated achievements in NFTs, igaming, media and the “AKNEYE” hand-painted eye sculpture. Winners were selected through a combination of a public voting system on the blockchain, data from the ftNFT.com marketplace and a jury that included art curators and critics (such as Sarah Scribner and Demetrio Paparoni) and thought leaders in the Web3 space (such as Rahim Mahtab and “Pukerainbow”).

Innovation with a side of dance

The awards celebrated creativity, style and cutting-edge innovation. The award for Most Innovative NFT Collection, for example, went to Zack Ritchie for his creation of CactiCrew, a playful mix of cartoonish characters like “Gangster Bep” and “Pirate Bep.”

“I was quite inspired by Beeple to create an artwork a day,” Ritchie explained. “I love creativity. I like diversity. So every single day I tried a different drawing. And we did that for 315 days.” This morphed into CactiCrew, avatars that range from music-inspired (“Saxo Bep, holding a saxophone) to childhood nostalgia (“Muppet Bep”) to crypto culture (the “Hold Bep,” whose eyes are staring upwards, clearly pining for the price to moon). It’s an eclectic mix.

CactiCrew is self-aware, meta and thought-provoking – a recurring theme throughout the evening. Take “Mind Your Scrolling,” the winner of Best Motion Art NFT. The work shows a man on a train who stares out the window, impatient, and tries to use the window as a screen – flicking the window with his finger like he’s scrolling. He then turns the beautiful countryside into a digital blur. As the artist puts it, this illustrates how “we tend to let our life pass by and scroll through it, obsessed over things that will eventually leave us empty.”

The night honored self-reflection, yes, but the show was still a show. Wearing red and black lingerie, dancers strutted onstage and performed a rousing edition of “Lady Marmalade” from Moulin Rouge. The vibe fit the evening. “Everyone here is dressed to impress,” co-host Amy Borg, from Malta Daily, said at one point. “They got the memo.”

From IRL to “EGOTF”

They also got the memo about the venue itself – a Maltese icon. The event was held at Fort Manoel, which was built in the 1720s by the Knights of St. John. Considered a masterpiece of Baroque military architecture, it was active during World War II and was featured in Game of Thrones as the Great Sept of Baelor. (Spoiler alert: If you saw Ned Stark get beheaded, you’ve seen Malta’s Fort Manoel.)

But putting aside all the sizzle, pomp and ceremony, the creators appreciated the rare chance to meet in-person, share stories, swap ideas and to inspire. “In-real-life events are the best, because you don’t just meet and speak about business,” said Zack Ritchie, the creator of CactiCrew. “You get to know the person. You build experiences together.”

And maybe, before long, we’ll be forced to recognize a new accomplishment in the arts. The “EGOT” is an almost mythical lifetime achievement; it means that a performer has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony – the “grand slam” of entertainment. Only 21 performers in history have pulled it off, including Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg and Elton John.

The race is on to see who can win the world’s first “EGOTF” – all of the above plus an ftNFT YoCerebrum award.

Your move, Elton John. We know you can sell out Madison Square Garden; now let’s see you create on Bahamut.