Coinbase Just Spent $25M on Cobie’s NFT to Revive UpOnly. Here’s the TLDR

Coinbase just dropped $25 million to burn an NFT and bring back "UpOnly," the crypto podcast that defined 2021's manic bull run.

And now, after two years of silence, eight new episodes are officially coming.

What Was Up Only?

Launched by Cobie and Ledger in 2021 and initially funded by FTX, UpOnly captured crypto at peak euphoria. The last episode aired on December 2, 2022, just weeks after FTX collapsed. The YouTube channel sits at 59.3k subscribers and the Twitch account at 38.4k followers.

If you were around in 2021, you didn’t just watch UpOnly. You lived it.

Degens, builders, and founders showed up weekly to talk markets, culture, scams, and sometimes life, where guests include Vitalik Buterin, Michael Saylor, Do Kwon and Beeple. It was raw, unscripted, and painfully honest.

Then it disappeared.

People begged for it to return, but Cobie made it clear: the vibes were dead. People didn't want the podcast back, they wanted 2021 back.

So instead of recording another episode, Cobie did something weirdly poetic: he minted an NFT. The condition was simple: burn it, and the show returns for 8 new episodes. No one knew if it would ever happen.

Then Coinbase showed up with $25 million.

And burned it.

Coinbase paid $25 million for the “UpOnly Return” NFT and sent it straight into the burn address. Translation: UpOnly is back, and it's coming sooner than anyone expected.

We Live In A Dumb Timeline

While Coinbase just spent $25 million resurrecting an internet talk show, Ethereum core developer Peter Szilágyi revealed he earned just $625,000 total over 6 years at the Ethereum Foundation during the same time ETH exploded over 1000x and became a global financial asset.

Let that cook:

• $25M for an NFT to restart a podcast

• $625K for the guy who literally keeps Ethereum running

Crypto has always been chaotic, but sometimes the contrast is so wild it feels scripted.

So What Now?

Can UpOnly bring back the glory days of degen chaos, DeFi summer, and NFTs going 100x overnight?

Probably not.

But it can do something more important: remind people that crypto isn’t just charts and ETFs. It’s culture, rebellion, and stories that don’t fit into corporate decks.

Whether this is the beginning of a new cycle or a loud top signal… that’s still up for debate. But one thing’s clear:

The market just got its biggest content catalyst, and CT will definitely tune in.