Doodles, an NFT profile picture maker, raised $54M at a $704M valuation from Alexis Ohanian's 776, FTX, and others with plans to expand to music and gaming NFTs
Amid generally somber conditions in the non-fungible token (NFT) market, colorful-profile-picture maker Doodles raised $54 million …
Context & Ripple Effects
Doodles' round lands at the tail of a funding cycle that peaked in 2021, when Dapper Labs' $305M NBA Top Shot raise at a $2.6B valuation was followed within weeks by a round at $7.5B+, and Animoca Brands pulled in $65M at a $2.2B valuation on the strength of in-game NFT ownership. By September 2022 the NFT market had turned somber, so a $704M valuation reads as a marked reset from those peak marks.
The investor list is what makes this worth watching: FTX took part, and per the related coverage its subsequent collapse triggered major legal and financial fallout. Months later, Doodles itself appears in coverage of NFT projects diversifying into real-world assets like toys and albums alongside BAYC and Pudgy Penguins — the music and gaming expansion flagged in this raise is an early instance of that pivot.
First-order effects
- Doodles gets $54M of runway to push beyond profile pictures into music and gaming NFTs while primary-market demand is weak, with Alexis Ohanian's 776 and FTX holding equity at a $704M valuation.
Second-order effects
- Rival PFP projects named in the later coverage — BAYC and Pudgy Penguins — face pressure to match the move into music, gaming, and physical merchandise rather than rely on secondary-market royalties.
- FTX's stake becomes entangled in its bankruptcy: the collapse that triggered major legal and financial fallout puts Doodles' cap table in the middle of creditor recovery proceedings.
Third-order effects
- The valuation gap between this round and 2021's peak NFT financings points to a structural repricing, pushing NFT companies to behave like entertainment IP businesses with diversified revenue instead of pure collectible issuers.
The trend: NFT platforms are shifting from profile-picture speculation toward music, gaming, and real-world IP revenue, with post-2021 valuations resetting accordingly.