Web3 and brands at Art Basel Miami Beach despite crypto winter

Cognac brand Hennessy is leveraging Art Basel as the debut physical event for its Web3 membership club, Café 11. The club was announced last month in partnership with Friends with Benefits, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) catering to creatives. DAOs are groups that use blockchain technology to organize and deploy money toward a common interest.

Through Café 11, Hennessy intends to host cultural experiences in a range of spaces, both physical and virtual, taking inspiration from the French salons of the 1920s. Members must belong to Friends with Benefits or own a Café 11 NFT, of which 1,765 tokens were launched last month. The NFT was designed by artist John P. Dessereau, and currently costs $240 on secondary marketplace OpenSea.

For its event at Art Basel in Miami, Café 11 will host a talk on Dec. 1 about the intersection of artificial intelligence and the arts, as well as a speech from Alex Zhang, the “mayor” of Friends with Benefits. A party will follow with live music from DJs.