SuperRare (RARE)

Marketplace and Art Curation

SuperRare is a curated NFT marketplace where artists can mint and sell unique digital artworks as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It focuses on high-quality, one-of-a-kind digital art pieces, allowing collectors to discover and purchase exclusive art. The platform is selective about which artists can mint NFTs, ensuring exclusivity and quality.

Governance and Community

SuperRare operates as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), where the community governs key aspects such as artist onboarding, curation, and treasury management. The $RARE token is used for governance, allowing holders to participate in decision-making and influence the platform’s strategic direction.

Token Utility

The $RARE token serves multiple purposes: it acts as a currency within the marketplace, supports a staking-based reputation system, and grants governance rights within the SuperRare DAO. Token holders can stake $RARE to earn rewards from the network treasury, which is funded by transactions across SuperRare and related projects.

Artist and Collector Benefits

SuperRare pioneered perpetual artist royalties, meaning artists earn a percentage from every secondary sale of their work. This system incentivizes artists and collectors to engage actively in the community. The platform also offers a social network aspect, enabling users to follow, like, and interact with artists and collectors.

Physical and Digital Integration

SuperRare extends beyond digital space by hosting physical galleries, such as the pop-up gallery in New York City, where digital art is displayed on high-quality screens, bridging the gap between traditional and digital art experiences.

Pros

• SuperRare offers a curated, exclusive marketplace for unique digital art NFTs, ensuring high-quality and rare pieces.
• Artists can deploy custom minting contracts, allowing them to tokenize and sell their art independently.
• The platform supports direct interaction between artists and collectors, fostering a community.
• Artists earn royalties (10%) on secondary sales, providing ongoing passive income.
• SuperRare uses Ethereum blockchain, benefiting from its security and transparency.
• The platform has a governance token, RARE, which allows holders to participate in decision-making through RareDAO.
• Staking RARE tokens offers rewards from the network treasury, giving diversified exposure to the digital art economy.
• Compatible with popular Ethereum wallets like MetaMask and hardware wallets such as KeepKey.
• The platform has a growing ecosystem with features like Spaces for curated exhibitions and branded galleries.

Cons

• SuperRare charges relatively high fees: a 15% commission on primary sales and 3% transaction fees on trades.
• Only accepts Ethereum (ETH) for payments, which may add complexity for users needing to acquire ETH first.
• The platform is exclusive, requiring artists to apply and be approved before minting NFTs, limiting accessibility.
• Gas fees on Ethereum can add extra costs to transactions.
• The market for SuperRare tokens and NFTs can be volatile and underperform compared to other Ethereum ecosystem cryptocurrencies.
• Requires users to have an understanding of blockchain and cryptocurrency to use effectively.
• Environmental concerns related to Ethereum's energy consumption.
• Limited to digital art NFTs only, with no broader range of NFT types available.
• The platform's price and market activity can be influenced heavily by large holders ("whales"), affecting price stability.

Founders

SuperRare was founded in 2017 by three co-founders: John Crain, Charles Crain, and Jonathan Perkins.

Roles

• John Crain is the CEO and a creative technologist focused on building the future of art collecting.
• Jonathan Perkins is the Chief Product Officer (CPO) and co-founder, with a background in software development and product design.
• Charles Crain, John’s brother, is also a co-founder, contributing to the trusted management team.

Background

The founders started experimenting with tokenizing digital art and building a platform where creators own their work. They launched SuperRare in 2018 as a curated marketplace for unique digital art backed by NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Main Investors

SuperRare has raised $9 million in a Series A funding round with 18 investors. Key investors include Velvet Sea Ventures and 1confirmation, who led the round. Other notable investors are Sound Ventures, Blockchain Coinvestors, Samsung NEXT, Version One Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Shrug Capital, Third Kind, and Palm Tree Crew Crypto.

Celebrity and Individual Investors

Famous individual investors involved are Marc Benioff, Mark Cuban, Chamath Palihapitiya, Ashton Kutcher, Naval Ravikant, and Guy Oseary.

Institutional Investors

SuperRare's institutional backers include 6th Man Ventures, Collab+Currency, Day One Ventures, Deeptech Ventures, and others, totaling around 29 investors across different rounds.

Summary

The investor group is a mix of venture capital firms, crypto-focused funds, and well-known individual investors supporting SuperRare’s growth in the digital art and NFT marketplace space.

Halal Status of SuperRare

SuperRare is a crypto token, and like other cryptocurrencies, its halal status depends on several Islamic finance principles:

• Inherent Value and Purpose: For a crypto to be halal, it should have inherent value and serve a real-world purpose. SuperRare is a platform for digital art NFTs, which can be seen as having a practical use in digital art ownership and trading.
• Avoidance of Riba (Interest): The token should not be involved in interest-based transactions.
• Avoidance of Gharar (Excessive Uncertainty): The investment should not be excessively speculative or uncertain.
• Compliance with Islamic Ethical Standards: The project should not be linked to forbidden activities.

Since SuperRare is a digital asset used for trading unique digital art and does not inherently involve interest or forbidden activities, it can be considered halal if the trading and investment are done without excessive speculation and comply with Islamic finance principles.

Answer: Yes, SuperRare can be halal if it meets Islamic finance criteria such as having real-world utility, avoiding interest, and minimizing excessive uncertainty.