The world of crypto is coming live to you in a matter of hours. The Next Crypto Gem, a show many have dubbed “the Shark Tank of crypto,” premiers on September 7th in 56 countries. What can investors, enthusiasts, and critics expect? As per the production reports, The Next Crypto Gem draws its inspiration from entrepreneurial TV shows such as The Apprentice, doubled down with a setting format of The Voice.
The inside of a show bridging crypto and mainstream entertainment
The show comes under the production of The Hourglass Collective, a web3 incubator. Hourglass Collective comes into the digital asset community to grow the industry to levels not witnessed in traditional finance.
The Hourglass Collective is a team of seasoned experts from the fintech, media, mobile apps, retail, real estate, entertainment, and marketing industries. Its mission is to cultivate real-world blockchain utility by incubating projects that connect crypto with mainstream entertainment, popular apps, and major retail brands and events. The Hourglass, $WAIT community, founds the Web3 incubator.
The program’s first episode will premiere on September 7, 2023, at 9:00 p.m. EST/6:00 p.m. PDT and will feature a number of crypto influencers. The show promises to introduce blockchain technology and digital assets to a mainstream audience in a manner not seen before.
The reality TV show will air on Insight TV’s 178 platforms in 56 countries and multiple online platforms. The show features industry icons Brian D. Evans, Layah Heilpern, and George Tung as contest judges. Throughout Season 1, original Shark Tank shark Kevin Harrington, legendary poker player Tom Dwan, and notorious YouTuber Ben “Bit-Boy Crypto” Armstrong will make cameo appearances.
The first season was co-funded by Hourglass Collective chairman Jeff Mahony’s NEFT Entertainment and Hourglass Collective president Jett Tang. The production was led by seasoned producers and wrapped filming in March. Jett Tang stated that:
The Next Crypto Gem captures everything that makes the cryptocurrency industry so compelling and brings these elements to a mainstream audience for the first time. The teamwork; the rivalry; the larger-than-life characters and the out-the-box ideas: they’re all here, packaged in a format that will be easily absorbable to television viewers. Crypto is the greatest show on earth and now, in The Next Crypto Gem, the industry’s got the series it’s always deserved.
Jett Tang
Here’s how The Next Crypto Gem will go down
The Next Crypto Gem is a competition in which contestants present their projects to a panel of experts and influencers in the DeFi ecosystem. The program will pit competitors against one another in tournaments for a prize package valued at approximately $150,000.
Tang shared that the first episode’s challenge involves people who were “the least likely to understand crypto and the most unfriendly to crypto.” The contestants are then divided into four teams that must demonstrate their ability to communicate the fundamentals of blockchain to “no coiners” in order to win the challenge.
The educational component continues throughout each of the six weeks of challenges, with what Tang refers to as “The Big Short” moments where the judges step in to explain a key crypto term or concept. Aside from that, the nature of the challenges is being kept under wraps. The format is intended to be entertaining and fast-paced.
Other than the entertainment aspect, the shows’ main emphasis lies in capturing the essence of crypto culture and introducing it to an audience with limited prior exposure to the industry’s unconventional nature and the diverse personalities it attracts. The production team is currently in the process of planning a second season.
The Next Crypto Gem represents one of several initiatives hatched by The Hourglass Collective aimed at facilitating the convergence between crypto and mainstream entertainment. In addition to its many projects, The Hourglass Collective has facilitated the incubation of Alpha District, an ecosystem for role-playing games based on blockchain technology, as well as Kosmos, an application that enables fiction writers to interact with readers through self-publishing.
There are further initiatives underway to enhance the functionality and acceptance of Web3 technology. By the look of things, the premier of this new season sets the ground for global crypto adoption for viewers around the globe.
