- Coinbase paid $25M in USDC for Cobie’s UpOnly NFT.
- The deal revives the UpOnly podcast for eight new episodes.
- Cobie joked about returning, calling the sale “too absurd to occur.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has confirmed the $25 million buy of the “UpOnly” NFT from famend dealer and podcaster Jordan “Cobie” Fish.
The acquisition not solely marks a serious foray by Coinbase into NFT-driven media but additionally units the stage for the long-awaited revival of the UpOnly podcast after a three-year hiatus.
Armstrong introduced the acquisition in a post on X, writing, “The rumours are true, we purchased the NFT. UpOnlyTV is coming again.”
The transaction, recorded on-chain, reveals Coinbase paying 25 million USDC to Cobie for the token — a sum that astonished many within the crypto group given the NFT’s tongue-in-cheek origins.
The $25 million NFT
The UpOnly NFT was by no means meant to promote. When Cobie minted it in Might 2025, he framed it as a part of a humorous problem, declaring that the present would solely return if somebody purchased and burned the NFT.
“The ability is now saved inside this NFT,” Cobie wrote at the time. “When it’s burned, the podcast will restart.”
To verify nobody truly bought it, Cobie set an absurdly excessive worth, including zero after zero till it seemed unattainable to purchase — at the same time as a joke.
Nevertheless, Coinbase not solely purchased the NFT however reportedly paid greater than its listed worth.
In doing so, the trade inadvertently activated the “burn-to-revive” situation, forcing Cobie and his co-host Ledger to return to the microphones for eight new episodes of UpOnlyTV.
From a joke to $25 million actuality
The NFT’s description, written in Cobie’s trademark humour, grants its holder the suitable to “compel Cobie and Ledger Standing into performing, like monkeys, 8 episodes of UpOnlyTV.”
It even permits them to “name the client idiots” or ignore them utterly throughout manufacturing.
What started as a parody of NFT tradition has now develop into a high-value contract tied to one of many largest crypto exchanges on the planet.
For Coinbase, the deal indicators greater than a meme buy.
The corporate has framed the acquisition as a part of its rising content material and media technique — an effort to interact audiences past buying and selling and trade companies.
By tying the revival of a well-loved podcast to blockchain technology, Coinbase is experimenting with how NFTs can mix digital possession, creator incentives, and leisure.
The rise, fall, and return of UpOnly
UpOnly first launched in the course of the 2021 bull market, hosted by Cobie and Ledger.
The podcast grew to become a fixture of crypto tradition for its trustworthy conversations with merchants, fund managers, and venture founders.
Visitors typically mentioned market traits with a mixture of sharp perception and irreverent humour, serving to the present stand out in an more and more noisy media panorama.
Nevertheless, the present went silent in 2022, following the collapse of FTX and the broader crypto downturn.
For 3 years, followers questioned if UpOnly would ever return. Cobie repeatedly stated no till the playful NFT thought modified all the things.
Now, with Coinbase’s buy, the present’s comeback is formally underway.
In keeping with the NFT phrases, Cobie and Ledger will produce an eight-episode season starting on October 21, 2025 — practically three years to the day after the podcast went darkish.
In true Cobie vogue, the dealer responded to the $25 million windfall with dry humour. “It’s been three years since UpOnly ended,” he wrote on X.
“I used to be in my 20s when it began, now I’ve gray hair.” He joked that he may rename the present “Unc Solely” and spend the NFT proceeds on beauty surgical procedure earlier than the primary episode.
Behind the jokes, although, lies one of the crucial uncommon media transactions in crypto historical past — a deal that reworked a meme right into a multimillion-dollar media contract.
