John Caldwell is an American entrepreneur, also known as vegsurfer, formerly a Venture Partner at Wave Financial, including launching the first SEC registered NFT Fund. He is also a founding member of Unicorn DAO and Unicorn X with Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova. Before Wave Financial, he was a successful NFT collector, degen, and Layer 1 business developer. He is an avid surfer, environmentalist, and animal rights advocate. He has contributed to efforts to increase inclusivity in web 3 and to support Ukrainian resistance to Russian agression using crypto and NFTs.

His network spans anonymous NFT thought leaders, political activists, artists, musicians, and developers. He has curated, moderated and spoken on panels for major crypto conferences and advises on metaverse strategy for a range of companies and organizations.

Caldwell said UnicornDAO is not like other communities because it’s “safe, fun, accepting, and there’s a path towards activism and financial freedom.” He described the organization as a “lighthouse” for those who are crypto- and Web3-curious but may not fit into the space’s traditional communities.

“Behind all the tech, I still think the NFT community is about human connection,” Caldwell said.

-Blockworks

John Caldwell, described by Perruccio as “one of the world’s most experienced people in NFTs and NFT trading”. He adds that their ability to put together a team of NFT experts for their fund was “pretty serendipitous.”

-Forbes

“Obviously, prices are down from all-time highs. But there are still people in the audience here at the panel for NFTs. Like [in] a true, just horrible bear market, no one’s gonna care,” Caldwell said.

While NFT trading volume might be staggeringly low now compared to just a few months ago, Caldwell does think NFTs will make a comeback. “You won’t even know you’re using NFTs, but they’ll be back,” he said of the next bull cycle.

-Decrypt