Charlotte Kent brings her extraordinary sense of humour to a review of Zachary Small’s book Token Supremacy, which dives into the 2021 NFT bubble and its aftermath. The book compares historical financial crises like the Dutch tulip mania but falls short in offering a well-rounded narrative. Small’s engaging anecdotes of key figures such as Beeple, Tyler Hobbs, and Justin Aversano give a lively recount of the NFT boom. Still, the book lacks depth, skipping over the complexities of crypto-art’s financial models and the regulatory challenges that shaped the market.
Kent points out that Token Supremacy doesn’t quite meet its goal of contributing to cultural economics and instead reads like a “Vanity Fair-esque” overview of the NFT hype. While Small mentions important events and players, the book misses critical insights, leaving out broader context and key figures who were instrumental in blockchain art’s early days. Despite these shortcomings, Kent acknowledges that readers will find entertaining moments in Small’s narrative, but for those seeking a more rigorous exploration of the NFT world, the book doesn’t quite deliver.
Excerpt: “… Several artists making work about or with blockchain in the technology’s early years addressed its potential and the problems with its underlying financial model: Simon de la Rouviere, Simon Denny, Sarah Friend, Rhea Myers, Martin Nadal, César Andaluz, and Martin Lukas Ostachowski, to name a few. Small’s book recounts the two years of media-driven interest and inflation, but omits this backstory and wider scope, limiting readers’ understanding of what that moment was truly about, and thus, where it might be going …” from: Charlotte Kent: In Token Supremacy, Zachary Small Presents a Sensationalized Version of the NFT Boom, Artnews, June 13th, 2024: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/reviews/token-supremacy-zachary-small-book-review-1234709631/