Josie Bellini is a renowned crypto artist, known for her iconic Bitcoin gas mask from Filter. She has made a name for herself in the NFT world, being featured on various platforms such as Christie’s, SuperRare, ASync Art, and Nifty Gateway. Her journey to becoming a successful artist was not conventional, having started her career in finance.
From Finance to Crypto Art
Growing up in poverty, Bellini always had a passion for art but wanted to live a life of plenty. Thus, she majored in finance in college and took a job at a traditional finance company. Her desire to learn more about finance eventually led her to the world of crypto, which reignited her love for art and led to her making money.
Attending Bitcoin meetups in her hometown, Bellini quit her traditional finance job to work in crypto. She aimed to become a full stack developer by attending a coding bootcamp but found that her passion was in the design side of things. She started making websites, logos, and materials for blockchain conferences and crypto companies, which was her foot in the door to getting work in the industry.
By the end of 2017, Bellini created her first personal crypto artwork, called “Genesis,” which blew up on Reddit. At the time, “crypto art” was not yet a thing, and she was creating themed art to spread awareness of cryptocurrencies. It was not until two years later, in June 2019, that she minted her first NFT as an artist, “Tune In.”
CyberBrokers and the Metaverse
In early 2022, Bellini founded CyberBrokers, a 10,001-NFT collection that she had been planning for years. The project considers itself a media and entertainment company focused on the metaverse. The art was hers with help from Azamat Khairov.
Having grown up in the neighborhoods of Chicago, Bellini has developed a love for street art and graffiti, which shines through in her work, particularly the CyberBrokers collection. Minting at 0.35 ETH, the floor on the secondary market pushed up to the 4–5-ETH range within a month, including some massive sales for rares in the collection, such as “Gnash” for 150 ETH on March 31, 2022, and “Tempo” for 120 ETH on April 4, 2022.
Despite the downturn in the NFT market in May, CyberBrokers remains focused on content, collectibles, and experiences. Bellini believes in true digital immortality and has created her art in vector format, which means that the vector gets translated into code. That code gets written into a contract, which can generate the art even 200 years from now, as long as someone can access the code.
Bellini’s journey from finance to crypto art is a testament to the power of following one’s passion. Her love for art and finance led her to the world of crypto, where she made a name for herself as a crypto artist. CyberBrokers, her latest collection, is a reflection of her passion for street art and graffiti, with a focus on the metaverse. Despite the downturn in the NFT market, CyberBrokers remains focused on innovation and content, and Bellini believes in true digital immortality.