BatSoupYum is a digital art collector whose eclectic collection spans AI, photography, glitch, animation and illustration, including work by underrepresented artists.In 2025 he committed $100,000 to buying cryptoart from emerging artists and launched UPRISING.ART, a programme to support artists he felt were being overlooked.
BatSoupYum came from a background in traditional finance and entered the cryptocurrency space in 2016, amid the shifting financial and political landscape in the US. He was introduced to NFTs in 2020 by Shayne Coplan, the founder of Polymarket.Beeple's $69 million sale of Everydays then convinced him the medium was more than a passing trend. His first NFT purchase was a Hashmask, bought for about $800 the day after that sale.His profile carries the tagline “fight the power”, a sentiment his collection reflects through works that engage political and social themes such as racism and self-sovereignty.He is a member of Team 6529,the group behind the community-curated series The Memes, where he votes on and advocates for which pieces are selected.
He founded UPRISING.ART to address what he described as a discovery problem in on-chain art, where the closure of many sales platforms had made it harder for new artists to be seen. To run and curate the programme's open calls, he hired a collaborator, Lanett, though he makes the final purchasing decisions himself. BatSoupYum has described his approach as collecting for cultural memory rather than short-term returns, saying he wants his collection to reflect what he loved rather than its market value.
