VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As Vancouver’s Web3 scene continues to gain prominence globally, a local couple’s NFT collection — which was inspired by their two-year-old daughter — will be the first in Canada to be featured in an original children’s series, as part of a new partnership recently announced by TIME Studios.
With a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs that live on the Ethereum blockchain, the littles was founded in November 2021 by Vancouver-based Wilson Lee and Cass Chan, featuring animated bears — their daughter’s favourite animal. There are more than 5,500 holders, with each NFT currently costing a minimum of $1,200.
Following a tremendous reception — having sold out in less than two minutes of the launch, and with more than $40 million in secondary sales since — the collection caught the attention of the Emmy Award-winning studio. With it being only TIME Studio’s fourth NFT-based property, the new series will be based on the littles’ characters as part of the studio’s animated franchise lineup.
“Web3 has enabled me to share my roots globally, and through the littles to capture and share that long-forgotten sense of awe that children have,” said Wilson Lee, founder of the littles. “We’re excited to continue reaching new audiences and be able to tell stories through NFTs, not just in Vancouver and across Canada but also with the world.”
In December 2021, the couple donated $100,000 of the project sales to the BC Children’s Hospital to fund Canada’s first pediatric thalassemia registry. The initiative was inspired by their daughter, who has a variant of thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that causes the body to create less hemoglobin.
Although the littles is Lee’s first project in the NFT space, he brings a decade of entrepreneurial experience in various industries, including food and beverage, entertainment, and angel investment. He has parlayed his business acumen to the NFT space as a thought-leader, and creator, and will be speaking at the upcoming VeeCon, an NFT conference hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk. Chan, his wife and co-founder, is an ex-Fortune 500 professional, and will be joined by Lee to speak at NFTCON.co on Thursday, March 24, at 11:05 a.m. PST about their experience starting the littles.
“Wil is an incredible thought-leader and entrepreneur within the web3 space and the littles is one of the most positive, optimistic communities out there, which aligns perfectly with the values of TIME,” said Keith Grossman, president of TIME.
In addition to the partnership with TIME Studios, the founders are in the process of creating the first interoperable skins-and-tokens-gaming experience in the Metaverse, set to launch via their web-based game platform, 1Up-Arcade. Adds Lee: “This is only the beginning as we aim to become the inflection point for all major partners within the Metaverse, including other top NFT projects such as Cyberkongz, Supducks, KaijuKingz, and Coolcats.”
ABOUT the littles
the littles NFT is a project created to bring a bit of magic to the world through moments. Since its inception in November 2021 with 10,000 unique NFTs that live on the Ethereum blockchain, the littles collection has had more than $40 million in secondary sales. Created with love in Vancouver, B.C., the project emphasizes values-based messages of fun, inclusion, and humility.