[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, well, I'm welcome back to the Crypto Mavericks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Super excited to have a returning project here with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got the co-founder of ACEs.fun Kurt Ivy Kurt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining us today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we just love the platform.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked six months ago and things were still getting underway.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked to your other co-founder.
[SPEAKER_00]: But please let us know your background how you got into this crazy world of RWAs and NFTs and real-world assets being on your platform before we talk about ACEs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'll try to be brief, it's very random, but I met Cyrus at a biohacking conference while I was trying to raise money for a different project before I even got into it three.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I told him about some things I've been writing and working on.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just hit it off, and at the time I knew nothing about crypto at all, and he introduced me to crypto.
[SPEAKER_01]: He introduced me to his projects, what he's working on, and then we got into A. I'm sorry, shopbex, back in the day, and shopbex was his idea to introduce Web3 to Ecommerce.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got hooked immediately because I was very interested in finance and politics, and taking down Amazon
[SPEAKER_01]: So, they clicked for me, and a shoutback to Stukov, I helped launch, we had a 150X launch.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, really huge day for me, because I was starting art, or something to that point.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I don't know, it was a good day, even though we'd never really sold our tokens.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we still were able to keep the lights on for quite a while.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then,
[SPEAKER_01]: shop that's pivoted to ACEs.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the meantime, I had been working on marketing, my health, so many projects launched since then.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have 10 of my own bylines, probably over 100 articles, well over 100 articles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Need to go straight and publish under my name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Recently, I've taken a pivot into vibe-goating because we haven't made quite a few things, including remaking the website with a lot of help actually from one of the community numbers.
[SPEAKER_01]: So shout out to Kenny.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I helped finish that up and now we're already going the next face for aces.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for those that don't know, tell us about aces then.
[SPEAKER_01]: So ASUS is an attempt to tokenize the collectibles market.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if you're into collectibles, you're into collectibles.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can see, you know, back on, you have quite a few things here.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, collectibles are, I think, a low-hanging fruit for RWA's tokenization.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they still haven't quite been nailed down.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm sure there's, you know, some stuff going on that, not 100% aware of.
[SPEAKER_01]: Aces is 100% focused on collectibles, luxury items, cards, watches, free, each set of Pokemon card, Luigi Pikachu, so.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's still on tap.
[SPEAKER_01]: I still think we have an angle here and we're excited to start listening to some more products and really get things going.
[SPEAKER_01]: Recently, you will not recently, a couple of months ago, we got hacked, some sort of, it's actually similar to the drift hack where you have wallets that have, like previous signage, they were assigned on something else.
[SPEAKER_01]: you gave way that permission elsewhere, then the log attack.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think some community members probably got hacked as well, we don't really know who, but like, you know, took a big hit there, took a little hit in the beginning of the year when base pivoted away from social initiatives.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we're still in the game, we still have, you know, a lot of things going on with our
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, walk me through just the basic steps here because I see that you have obviously physical assets collectibles like you mentioned right and do they get great it with a third party like we see the Richard Miller thanks he's the Luigi Pikachu how does that work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they would be graded before they come to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: When by the time you get to us, we want to see that everything is 100% certified.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it has to be yours, has to be real.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't really, we're not certifying things.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just a listing platform.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I mean,
[SPEAKER_01]: And I recently, I just added some sections in the website to make sure, you know, people who list in the future will be able to show off their credentials and everything, give the buyers and token buyers and the, you know, the asset buyer, more confidence on their, their ownership and provenance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when they list after they list it, is it a set tokenomics for all of them or is that by print, I mean, I'm minted the man, how does that work for the tokens?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, same token, I'm sorry, everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: And recently, we got rid of the bonding curve mechanics and we launched our own pools.
[SPEAKER_01]: We did that to avoid any more funny business of the hack, but it'll be the same token on our story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody, the only difference is,
[SPEAKER_01]: At least for the next couple of months, you know, the next few launches, we will be collecting the trading fees ourselves and distributing the trading fees to the sellers because that's part of the whole point of basis.
[SPEAKER_01]: You list on aices, we launched token for you, you collect your trading fees while you're waiting for a buyer and then when you sell the item, you know, the community takes the
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of helping let's say I'll go along and help them get some trading fees or whatnot.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that is only difference is we will have to manually give the seller their trading fees better than that, you know, pretty much the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how does the selling work?
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember in the previous iteration of the site, I could go on there and buy it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that no longer the case or can people still, if they really like this Richard Miller, they could go buy it online.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, like I still buy it, and in the beginning, we're heavily curated.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that'll ever change, but at least for now, we're in first name contact with the sellers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone wants to buy it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be able to just arrange it personally.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be a very personal and intimate situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like not super automated.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the thing that's fine for now?
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, we were negotiating a St. L with the piece recently, you know, the friend of a friend had a buyer for a piece that we're going to listen.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, it's that part is behind the scenes and like personal.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not all of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, it did a, I see we see that you have an addition of Banksy that the recent Banksy review effect that he said
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, actually, we even noticed the elicit bengsi has been the token that has gotten the most bids up and down.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been the one that's kind of moved the most.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Pikachu was kind of strong, but as far as movement and reactions to whatever might happen in the market, the elicit bengsi is what takes some reactions like, it's not like
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It definitely seems like there's a demand for collectibles, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously in a real world and they definitely hold value over inflation in some sectors, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: How has that been in the world of crypto where it's kind of turmoil, that there's a lot of volatility, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it really shouldn't be, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should be depends.
[SPEAKER_00]: It should be just based off to collect about itself, just help us walk through the average person
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna try to answer that question, I'm not 100% sure what's being asked, but I think, you know, when we talk about inflation and, you know, the up-and-down value of crypto, when you add our WAs into that, it does provide some semblance of stability.
[SPEAKER_01]: for when the sale happens to get some money, that's another little anchor to real-world value and some stable money on top of the very tumultuous price action.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I think it's partly why times the collectible narrative does really take off as because when people see that, they see these tokens are tied to assets with,
[SPEAKER_01]: stable value and not just stable value in the price, but stable value in the mine share.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Pokemon stuff is just constantly on top of mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Collectables are part of culture.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're part of hype and everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you have something like silver or gold, not super interesting unless it's the topic of the day, but the stability of the narrative of collectables
[SPEAKER_01]: is pretty strong, and again, I got a mushroom from answering it right, but the price of the asset, I think plays into just the legitimacy of the token on top of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's one thing we liked overall by ACEs is that it has legitimate assets verified.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we thought that the tokens would attach to the DartW value would appreciate as the assets help appreciate, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not really fractionalization, but more like a, you get to be a participant in the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were as a normal person would never, I wouldn't buy 520,000 PIAJ personally.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm not you or anyone else that has that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But having the ability to get that upside, it makes sense in what you're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think from 2020 to 2025, a lot of people try a fractionalization.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it never really took off, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like in terms of NFTs and having all true ownership fit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know why?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you may not be an expert, but like Huckerman didn't take off.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just people just not ready for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because the average trader wants to trade a token that has liquid value.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they want to sell it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the traditional finance trader, they aren't too excited about Web3.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is like a gray middle zone where, you know, it's, um, they're good assets, but traditional is kind of scared of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Web3 native is bored of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what did you do with them?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I think
[SPEAKER_01]: with the difference with ASUS and you kind of touched on it briefly like you're actually perfectly and I'm always really happy when people explain ASUS or anything I'm working on so clearly and easily shows that you understand and you're paying attention and you know feel a little private for that but yeah it's hard to create the tokenization aspect of things
[SPEAKER_01]: the idea of fractalization kept coming back and we kept bouncing it away because what you said it's just not that exciting and so we decided to attach this kind of secondary derivative market to the token and like you said it allows people to participate.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was that was a really big thing that kept coming up as well as allowing people to participate in that watch of that car and have a piece of it in a way, but also a piece of it that's You know, like it makes money on real quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's volatile or type and then if the item sells, they get some money from that.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the website, if you were to buy, let's say the elicit bank's he token, you'll be able to see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The formula will tell you right away how much you would get from the sale of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It depends on how many people own the token, if you go right now and buy some of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right there immediately shows you how much you'd get from the sale and then if you go to your portfolio it'll show you how much of each item that you have so someone's like you're collecting each one of those items and then it'll show you how much you're going to get when each one of the items says.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, right now, it's not super fabulous or popular, but I do believe if Ace of the does take off, and that's going to be a really big part of it, you know, if you're looking portfolio, I have a watch, I have a car, these things sell, I've got this much to me is a no-brainer.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see how it goes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, definitely I we loved it and we still talk about it with our community like how our WAs are coming in and evolving and we always point to ACEs as one that's evolving and trying to include everyone to this face.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was very, I don't know, not what's it is a very interesting time in the market, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, like, doing what you guys did from November to now is like the darkest days of crypto, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, no one's launching it in that time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even now we're still in that chopped zone right in that chopped channel.
[SPEAKER_00]: So,
[SPEAKER_00]: being launched in such an interesting market.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you guys are so pushing through.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see all the live collectibles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Has there been sales of the assets yet?
[SPEAKER_00]: You mentioned people reach out to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just if see if any came into fruition and how that was for the community.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've had some very, very close and levels.
[SPEAKER_01]: especially on the Bank Sea, and then we have some inventory still.
[SPEAKER_01]: The items we haven't listed yet, you know, waiting for the right moment to get those launchers out.
[SPEAKER_01]: But some of those got nibbles as well, so that was a kind of exciting being able to, if we were able to line up,
[SPEAKER_01]: a sale and a launch sort of together or at least if we had an interest on an item, throw on that up to list and seeing who finally takes the, you know, takes the plunge.
[SPEAKER_01]: But no, we haven't had any sales yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's, that was a big part of, early on, we talked about that a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: We really need to sail on one of these really quick because then cruise the model, we need to be super excited to cash in that, that was a documentary award and everything, so, yeah, not yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, good.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I pointed to the choppy time frame.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's only been six months in my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like assets don't typically act like a meme coin, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless it's a Pokemon or thing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because those are going wild.
[SPEAKER_00]: But things like hard assets like this typically take a while to appreciate anyways, especially these conditions.
[SPEAKER_00]: But definitely we'll look forward to a win to prove the model like you mentioned.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... what does uh... what's like the biggest lesson that you've had uh... in the six seven months that you guys have lunches couple assets you know what's uh... the biggest lesson for you learning a lot of the
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, well, first of all, you know, you said you launched in the choppy timing and shop-ex was, we were grinding the shop-ex for almost two years during worse and worse than this.
[SPEAKER_01]: We weren't too concerned, we're not, we're never too concerned about what the market's doing, we're more, we line, try to line up with what base was doing, with where the market seemed to be going, with what we believe,
[SPEAKER_01]: lines up with like, you know, like, where the market's going.
[SPEAKER_01]: So our giveaways are getting pretty big, collectibles are pretty big and crypto-to base is taking off.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all of those things can together for us to launch and, you know, some people in the community might get a little antsy about the token price, but
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, for us, it's, again, we're, we're going to lock in just like we do with job eggs and we obviously can try to make it happen this time, but yeah, not too concerned about the market.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as far as what was the second part of the question, it was a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the question was, what did you learn?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because a lot of founders, because, you know, they get either feedback from the community members or they see something shift in a market and just being that much time, you know, in a market, just seeing if there's any epiphanys.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, yeah, you answered well, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that the biggest thing that I've taken away from this is you have to move faster.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to move faster, you have to really attach yourself to what's going on in the market as much as possible, ship ship ship and, you know, really many things happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we did a lot of thinking with ACEs, especially in the beginning and not as much doing as we, I think we should have, so much planning, so much planning, so much work on
[SPEAKER_00]: 100%, I mean, the crypto space is even faster than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And basis, like you mentioned, moved on a little bit from social to the word of AI, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully AI will help you do that website in two snaps of a finger, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's going to be a big thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as things are evolving, things are changing.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the, what's the, what's the sex to look like for you guys this year in 2026?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, going back to what we were saying before the obvious answer is making a sale on the listing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if we can get something nice listed, you get a sale on that, pay it to open holders out, everyone's happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that will give us a big jump in credibility and excitement and carry some amendment forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's really, you know, that would be the start success.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then if we can keep those going back to back,
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it could snowball really, really hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one's going to want to miss out on free money.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think if you see that, okay, this token is going up if I buy the token and the item sells, which they have been selling in this theoretical situation, I know that even if people sell the token,
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'll get a look at back when the diamond sells.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's like a cushion there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my idea from the very beginning was that the cushion would help those tokens.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, keep going up, stay stable, no big downs because people know that, like, I'm safe.
[SPEAKER_01]: No matter what, I'm safe.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's what we're hoping for.
[SPEAKER_01]: We hope that like we can create a community of like,
[SPEAKER_01]: people feeling safe and they want to get into our launches because they know that tokens are going to do well, items will probably sell because there's a lot of eyes and yeah so we want to build that momentum and get that for sale.
[SPEAKER_00]: Gotcha.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there any notes that you take from the industry at all?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we know that collectibles has really grown in crypto actually with, you know, fidgetos, collector crypts, collector cards I mean, and they've been doing all these, you know, fidgetos in a way where you could redeem the physical and have it online.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or is it just something that's a complete little bit different than your business model?
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, the collectible industry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's been a lot of success in physical cards being on the blockchain with collector cards and a lot of crypto companies really taking that lead.
[SPEAKER_00]: So to see if you had any tabs on that or just you guys are just head downs focusing on what you guys doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we've taken a little tip of everything and going into the future.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can never remember this name.
[SPEAKER_01]: If some of the team's watching us going to laugh, there is a website where you sell, you sell things, and you create videos, you know what I'm talking about, it's like an eBay, it's called, like, what about, or what should, or something like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: What not, or something like that?
[SPEAKER_01]: What not?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry, I'm probably guessing wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think so, I think I'm guessing wrong to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: My team has corrected me 700 times, I can't remember it, but they do where they have a creator.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll make videos about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nightingham and the Nell sell their stuff and it's like an eBay for, it's like a TikTok eBay combined.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: We kind of want to go down that route eventually, where I'll be able to make videos and focus around the creators in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: That makes a lot of sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is what not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that I think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I've seen people, it's kind of like life-shop, it's kind of like, what's that thing called?
[SPEAKER_00]: Went back in the days where all the ladies were sort of acting cleaners online, but it's a social media now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone's just life-shopping and then selling to things.
[SPEAKER_00]: That makes a lot of sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen a lot of people utilize those platform recently.
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't seen it in the world of crypto so much, so that'll be really interesting one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's a, you let us know when that comes out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're in with AI, I mean, like I especially, you're not the bride, but I'm getting quite dangerous with the live coding.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've made quite a lot of things since I used to started and any sort of new development we decided to go with.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to tackle it quickly and efficiently and you know, kind of like you said it depends on the market and everything, but and what other collectible
[SPEAKER_01]: The products are doing, but I think that that video one has always been our life in the very beginning, so that will be probably next big upgrade.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I look forward to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the most interesting progression and that I've heard from any founder because that streaming is such a huge thing or a big mind share of last year of 2025 and it's only going to proliferate.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe in 2026 and bringing that over was a it's a big task.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I know we know Luca tried to do with abstract, you know, they tried to promote live streaming didn't really take off their yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, this this social
[SPEAKER_00]: a version of it would make a lot of sense, especially on on-demand things that people want to collect.
[SPEAKER_00]: It definitely makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, definitely look forward to seeing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where can people find you, Kurt, if you want to be found at is me personally, or ASUS?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, both.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, me personally, the Kurt Ivy on Twitter.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then ASUS is ASUS.fun spelled out on Twitter, or ASUS.fun as a URL.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, feel free to read to follow up on me if you like more kind of a lot of different things but obviously Ace is always the main the main goal Check out Ace is that fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got to have a new website Come and try see if you want to listen to you know feel free to submit the application We'll look it over and we can have a chat and everything so Yeah, cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much Kurt for coming on spin pleasure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah