This week at Blockster, we’re turning the spotlight to a true Crypto King, Haydn Snape—who we had the pleasure to connect with during NYC NFT. Haydn kicked off NYC NFT with a spectacular event at the Nebula night club, accompanied by the prestigious Status Luxury Group founded by Nick Champagne, as well as Miami NFT Week, founded by Erik LaPaglia.
Visiting NYC from Dubai, Haydn and his partners had made quite the grand entry to NYC—somewhat of a Gatsby persona. There was something like 500 guests at this event, and that was just the start. As the week progressed, Haydn had been making appearances with big names like Aaron Gilbert, CEO and Chairman of BRON Studios.
We are intrigued, to say the least, and we wanted to learn more about Haydn and his company called Decentralised Investment Group, known as DIG—which has attracted big names like Mark Cuban and Jordan Belfort. Did we mention that all of his Web3 projects have already generated a return of over 5000% for his investors.
Check out the interview, as we dig deeper and uncover the veil of DIG’s founder, Haydn Snape—a buzzing name in the Web3 space.
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Haydn, you appear to be the man of the hour. You kicked off NYC NFT last week with a prestigious, VIP investor event at Nebula, and you made quite a few appearances throughout NYC NFT. Tell us about your company DIG, Decentralised Investment Group.
DIG is a company that builds, develops, invests and scales breakthrough thinking inside the realm of blockchain products, while fostering the values of decentralisation and financial liberty.
We’re a multinational conglomerate based in Dubai, with subsidiary offices in Miami, Warsaw, Mumbai, Hanoi, Manila and Nassau, and we’re ever-growing, with more to come. Already, we’ve been featured in Entrepreneur Middle East magazine, Forbes and TIME, and we’re not yet a year old. We’ve been awarded the E-Business Award as E-Investment Solution Of The Year by Entrepreneur Middle East just last month, and we’re making a solid name for ourselves as disruptors in the blockchain, NFT, play-to-earn and crypto industry.
You’re based in Dubai, but you’re making a lot of noise right now in NYC. What is your investment group’s mission?
We want to shape the online ecosystem and digital business landscape, both in the MENA region as well as worldwide, while consistently exhibiting digital excellence that will set the standard for all those that come after us.
We are committed to developing revolutionary blockchain technology that is guaranteed to disrupt the digital world as we know it. Blockchain technology is going to become omnipresent until it pervades all aspects of everyday life, and we can help make that happen.
At DIG, we are on a mission to unearth and invest in all sorts of innovative products that will further the values of decentralisation, financial independence and individual liberty.
Web3 is the big buzzword right now. You seem to be perfectly set up at the right place at the right time. Tell us about the projects you’ve successfully funded.
At DIG, we incubate projects and bring them to life, so we’re actively always looking for new ideas in different arenas in order to innovate. Here’s a glance at some of our biggest blockbusters managed by our GameFi subsidiary, the Miami-based metaverse gaming company XYZZY:
- Realms of Ethernity: the world’s first triple-A quality massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Realms of Ethernity is a play-to-earn blockchain next generation free-to-play game inspired by World of Warcraft and boasting a virtual world filled with hundreds of immersive and action-packed play-to-earn games where developers and players can build, own and monetize their gaming experience.
- Kart Racing League: the world’s first play-to-earn NFT kart racing game, already released on Google Play Store and the App Store for Android and iOS devices and currently being developed as a second and far improved version.
- Original Myths: a generative collection of 8,000 NFTs of famous, legendary characters from the public domain. Think names like Aladdin, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, Thor, Dracula, Rapunzel, Zeus and many more. These multi-billion-dollar intellectual properties are being leveraged by Original Myths to connect with users instantly. Each NFT character can be used in a Super-Smash Bros style fighting game.
We have many more amazing projects in the pipeline, managed by both XYZZY as well as our other subsidiaries, but these three above have us especially excited this year.
What inspired you to start DIG? What makes you different from other Web3 investors?
Ten years into a career in financial services, I became very intrigued by the birth and rise of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, which led me to delve into the new frontier of decentralised finance, blockchain technology, development and programming.
Soon after, I founded this company on the premise that the world would inevitably require digital leadership, and someone would have to advise traditional businesses seeking the necessary insight, the education and the tools to embrace blockchain thinking and technology.
At DIG, we can provide that, and so much more. We are able to aid companies, businesses and industries towards futurising their services, to improve productivity and promote financial inclusion through a fair and equitable distribution of wealth and worth.
As for what makes us different? We know what we’re doing, and we’re partnering with the very best to get things done. And we’re also very much committed to giving back. We boast a holistic model that works towards social good, so we’ve established the DIG Foundation, our charitable non-profit arm, committed to making strategic investments in education initiatives and STEM programmes.
We want to empower and equip underprivileged communities with the tools and thinking to thrive in a digital economy.
With the recent market downturn, has this had any effect on your ability to fund new projects?
We’ve been doing very well, and we’ve been partnering with investors and advisors who are also leaders in their field, so this ensures that we have a solid foundation and a stable start to any project we take on. When we need to raise money for a new project, we can do it through the strengths of the project itself; we only take on successful initiatives that we know are a sure thing.
“It may be a bear market, but for us it’s build build and build.”
Haydn Snape
There are so many opportunities out there. Long term investors who think in this way are in it for the long run, and that’s who we partner with.
I saw the exciting news of you joining BRON Studios as an advisor. Is this a hint of a Web3 show potentially coming soon?
The cat’s out of the bag! Our Miami-based GameFi subsidiary, XYZZY, is working with Hollywood’s BRON Digital to create an NFT collection linked to eight episodes Gossamer, an animated series of eight half-hour episodes currently being developed by BRON. This followed on my appointment as Web3 advisor to BRON Studios.
The Gossamer animated series is accompanied by a 10,000-NFT collection of the show’s adult characters that XYZZY will be working on, as well as a play-to-earn game based on the show. Gossamer is going to become one of the first series to launch simultaneously on home TV, in theatres and with Web3. This is ground-breaking, and will herald blockchain technology into the world of Hollywood.
Is DIG actively involved in the management and development of the projects you invest in or do you take a more passive role?
Absolutely actively involved; nothing we do is passive. Our ever growing team, which right now encompasses over 250+ programmers and tech savvy staff in key emerging markets, is the talent we rely on to turn our visions into realities, allowing us to manage and develop the projects we dream up ourselves, as well as the projects we embark on with partners. We do it all inhouse because we invest in the right talent when we find it and absorb it into DIG. We are futurists at DIG.
How and where do you find new projects to invest in?
Everywhere; there’s no set formula. We find opportunities or gaps in the market, we work on getting an understanding of what the audience needs and what’s missing, and we create solutions to meet that need or address a lack in the market.
The trick is this: we don’t follow trends, we set them. We try to remain futuristic in our outlook. We’re doing that right now by merging the traditional film industry with cutting edge Web3 applications. This is a very new, very revolutionary angle to the Hollywood industry, and we’re leading the charge.
You have an amazing track record for generating 5000% returns for your investors. What’s the secret? What do you look for when deciding what to invest in?
That’s an excellent question that I love answering, because what we look for is people.
At DIG, investing for us means a lot more than just handing over some money. Our expertise is in development: we coach, we mentor, we incubate, we accelerate. We advise on things like the project economics or token economics.
We don’t care if a project idea comes to us without a marketing plan, or financials, or user acquisition costs in place; all that comes later and we’re happy to help with the more traditional stuff like structure, financing, marketing, because we’ve invested in creating a team that can do it all, from A to Z.
“Our role is to find exceptional founders who have dreamt up transformational projects. We’re looking for the people with the talent and the ideas, because we invest in people and in their passions.”
Haydn Snape
What’s next? Tell us your up and coming plans for the remainder of the year.
Well, the Gossamer NFT collection will certainly keep us busy, and we have Realms slated for a beta release by the end of the year. We are very committed to strengthening and expanding our GameFi arm so XYZZY will certainly be hard at work this year.
We have several NFT collections to launch, in various arenas including film as you know, so there’s more of that coming, and a lot going into making sure each collection is a resounding success.
Then we have our work with the DIG Foundation; we plan to continue creating opportunities that allow us to give back to communities in need throughout the world. Really, the year is going to be more of the same: more projects, more momentum, more growth and more success, as we continue to disrupt the industry.
Why should more investors join your investment group?
Our successful track record speaks for itself. The returns, also, speak for us, and that’s why we have industry leaders trusting us, investing in us and partnering with us. For example, we’ve had Mark Cuban invest in Kart Racing League. Mark Vange and Jordan Belfort have invested in Realms of Ethernity, and they’ve also become advisors and consultants for us as well. It’s all evidence based; the numbers speak for us.
