Former six-time Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Kenny Lofton has positioned himself in the massively growing Non-Fungible Token (NFT) and blockchain space through his new company Centerblock Asset Management. In partnership with Fintech professional J’on Dennis, CPA, the duo has launched a viable asset management company for NFTs with suite and proprietary applications.
After a successful 17-year MLB career, Kenny Lofton quickly recognized the value proposition that NFTs could create for current and former professional athletes and entertainers. Upon this discovery, Kenny Lofton co-founded CenterBlock to invest in decentralized finance technologies, NFT assets, and related blockchain technologies.
NFTs are currently disrupting the $5 billion sports memorabilia and $50 billion industries by providing additional revenue streams around fan engagement. With the future of digital trading and collecting becoming dominant in the financial arena, this black-owned NFT company will be in the midst of it all, yielding direct access and exclusivity to the fan culture in sports and entertainment.
Kenny, Centerblock Asset Management was created to address the high demand for NFT creation. Tell us about your company.
Centerblock is a digital asset management company that assists professional athletes, entertainers, and corporations in developing and deploying high-end digital assets through a suite of proprietary applications and agencies.
Our platform includes the following:
- A multichain NFT marketplace application called PROXIME allows creators to curate or showcase their works while providing statistical feedback and analysis. The marketplace platform is multichain on Ethereum, Binance, and Polygon. What’s compelling about the platform is its ability to accept debit and credit card payments.
- A branding agency to assist clients in exclusive drops and community engagement.
- A Creative Studio to assist in asset ideation, smart contract development, and deployment.
- Financial and legal assistance services to address the tax and legal implications around NFTs and any strategic partnerships.
Tell us about your partnership with Fintech professional J’on Dennis, CPA? Why is this the perfect fit?
As an early adopter, I quickly realized the value of developing an ecosystem for clients that addressed technological and psychological barriers in the NFT market.
J’on Dennis is a skilled expert in blockchain applications and founded FINTECH to utilize Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to automate back-office functions. Our partnership makes sense. As a six-time All-star former Major League Baseball Centerfielder, I know what’s important to professional athletes regarding fan engagement and brand partnerships.
J’on, on the other hand, brings technical and financial skills to the table. He can successfully launch a tech-based company and execute a successful roadmap of where blockchain technologies are headed.
Take us through the process.
Centerblock manages everything as far as digital assets. Many of our clients have an active and established community on social media. We also work with clients that have untapped markets as well. Our ideation team conducts thorough, in-depth research to understand all aspects of our client’s public and digital portfolio.
Utility use of the NFT is critical, so our ideation focuses on creating an NFT utility that can either be infinite or finite in use.
From ideation, we prepare for a drop by creating a “hype” campaign to increase engagement.
The key for our clients is bridging the gap between crypto enthusiasts and fans. We’re also building a decentralized market called PROXIME to deploy assets on our platform and assist clients with curating their collections.
How are you providing white glove concierge for your clients?
Transparency is extremely important to CenterBlock. Our platform is something that professional athletes and entertainers have never had before, especially when using their Intellectual Property.
Centerblock provides complete transparency to clients.
With having a licensed CPA and a renowned attorney as partners, CenterBlock delivers a high level of concierge services equally to all clients.
Who is this for?
For now, CENTERBLOCK is a platform specifically built for professional athletes, entertainers, and corporate clients.
However, our PROXIME marketplace will be for everyone. Any creator can mint, sell, and trade their NFTs on the PROXIME platform. As I mentioned, it is multichain. People can mint on either Ethereum, Polygon, or Binance blockchains. They can also sell their NFTs using crypto or USD currency.
J’on Dennis, do you provide financial assistance?
Yes! Financial guidance for our clients, as it relates to their NFTs, is just as critical. The crypto market may soon have to deal with the Internal Revenue Code changes due to the proposed infrastructure bill.
We help our clients through current and future provisions related to their assets and sell off their assets for crypto.
Share your philosophy behind Centerblock Asset Management.
All our clients are partners in Centerblock. We also provide them with equity in PROXIME to participate in the success of what they created. It’s almost like a shoe company providing athletes with ownership of their shoes and shares as part of their endorsement.
At CenterBlock, we stand by incorporating the client in every step throughout the process. We are moving the decentralization of IP between celebrities and their respective communities.
What is your vision for 2022?
We are thrilled about 2022 and the overall future of crypto and NFTs. We want to build more amazing partnerships and develop a gaming platform to rig avatars and cross-platform integration with the metaverse.
CenterBlock is also launching a mobile wallet that holds crypto and NFTS allowing for the minting, selling, trading, and defi products.
