Tiffany & Co. launches NFTiff service to turn NFTs into jewelry – WWD

Tiffany & Co. coming for crypto bros. On Monday, the jeweler will unveil a new tailored program for owners of Cryptopunk NFTs called NFTiff.

The initiative was led by Cryptopunk owner and Tiffany executive vice president of product and communications Alexandre Arnault. In April, he was surprised by a lot of interest when he posted a photo of a custom Tiffany pendant made to look like his Cryptopunk #3167. Now up to 250 other Cryptopunk owners will be able to have a similar pendant made in the avatar’s likeness.

Arnault said his bullish stance on NFTs stems from the fact that they are “a cultural phenomenon and seen as an art medium that has characteristics that are important to a younger generation. They are digital only, unique, very well stored on the blockchain and obviously shareable. I’m excited about the community around collecting NFTs – these people don’t necessarily have a lot in common, but share the same interest around one type of art,” he said.

Cryptopunks, in Arnault’s own words, are the “OG” of the NFT world. The collection is limited to a supply of 10,000 one-time avatars that are bought and sold on the open cryptocurrency market. Owning one comes with a badge of honor among a certain, and very wealthy, subset of people.

For Arnault, bringing Cryptopunk to Tiffany is as much about digging into his own community (many of his friends are fellow Cryptopunk owners) as it is about introducing the jeweler to a new audience.

“These customers are obviously a bit younger than ours [classic] customer base. It’s an anonymous one [population], it’s not like you know who owns what, but what we generally understand is that they are younger and very wealthy, many of them made large amounts of money in the cryptosphere. People need to understand that many of the things in their world are related to luxury like desirability, scarcity, trends — they understand ups and downs, Arnault said.

Tiffany is among the first jewelers in its category to offer a bespoke jewelery service to NFT holders. NFTiff is the second NFT-related initiative for the jeweler, which in March bought an NFT from Tom Sachs that was inspired by Tiffany.

“What’s exciting for people is that you can hold an NFT, but you can’t see or experience anything with them. At Tiffany, we give them the opportunity to turn around [a Cryptopunk] to a piece of jewelry made by hand with the highest craftsmanship,” added Arnault.

Starting this month, Cryptopunk owners can access the NFTiff website to purchase an NFTiff pass that will be stored in blockchain technology. The passes are only available for purchase with Ethereum cryptocurrency and are priced at 30 Ethereum, which currently trades at around $50,000 dollars.

Tiffany only issues 250 NFTiff passes, and because some Cryptopunk holders own more than one, it only allows up to three passes per person.

The pass can then be exchanged for a bespoke pendant featuring a shopper’s Cryptopunk avatar, which will be designed at Tiffany’s innovation center in New York City and manufactured at its workshop in Cumberland, Rhode Island.

Each pendant will be made of 18-karat rose or yellow gold and have a minimum total of 30 gemstones and diamonds. It comes with a specially designed chain with rectangular links made to look like pixels. NFTiff owners are expected to receive a digital NFT rendition of the pendants in December, with physical jewelry delivery targeted for early 2023.

While the project is only aimed at a base audience of 10,000 people, Arnault said NFTiff “is a way for us to get into people’s lives who aren’t necessarily Tiffany’s core customers. It’s a way for people to access our brand. I don’t think we’ll be in the metaverse tomorrow morning, which is where these people spend most of their time, so it’s a great way to reach that community without doing something that doesn’t make sense for the brand.”

As for the future of NFTs at Tiffany’s, Arnault said of further NFTiff iterations, “Never say never.”