From OnlyFans to IPO – Why creators will be the next publicly traded companies

200 years ago, if you wanted ice in a hot climate, you had to import it. Ships would travel to ice lakes and haul back huge chunks of ice to warmer places. It was expensive, fragile, and dependent on a few key players. If something went wrong in the supply chain, the ice just melted. This was Ice 1.0.

Then came ice factories, people manufactured ice in bulk and then distributed it. Suddenly, people had more access, but you still had to buy from a central supplier. Scale improved, but power was concentrated. This was Ice 2.0.

Finally, came the refridgerator and the freezer. People could now make and keep ice stored at home, at any time. Ice went from being a scarce commodity to a ubiquitous utility. Ice 3.0.

Let’s draw a parallel now between ice and the creator economy. At first, creators relied on ads and platforms for monetization. YouTube revenue, brand sponsorships. Scarce, fragile, controlled by gatekeepers.

Currently, I believe we’re in the era of the creator economy that would equate to Ice 2.0. The subscription era, Patreon, Fanvue, Onlyfans. Creators gained more control, fans got closer access, but it’s still mediated by central platforms. Better, but still not fully in the creators’ hands.

So what’s the next logical step? What is Ice 3.0 for the creator economy? I believe it’s creator equity. Monetization becomes infrastructure, not a service. Fans don’t “buy content” or “subscribe”. They own a piece of the creator’s upside. Value becomes decentralized, liquid, always-on. Just as the freezer unlocked entire industries (cold chain logistics, supermarkets, global trade), creator equity will unlock new layers of the economy, based on trust and attention, rather than on balance sheets and brand equity.

You might be asking, what’s wrong with the current state of things, why should it change? Do people even want this?

The timing matters. We’ve hit a point where the old ways don’t scale anymore.

Platforms are squeezing harder every year. Twitch cuts payouts, YouTube demonetizes overnight, Patreon raises fees. Creators are at the mercy of rules they didn’t write and changes they didn’t agree to.

Advertising is collapsing. Apple’s privacy updates, ad blockers, declining CPMs — the whole model is eroding. Even top creators can’t rely on ads to fund growth.

AI has changed the game completely. Content is now infinite, videos, images, articles, all generated at near-zero cost. The one thing that remains scarce? Trust. And creators are the ones who own it.

Meanwhile, creators are already acting like startups. MrBeast launches burgers and chocolate. Fitness influencers sell supplements. Streamers launch drinks and clothing brands. Why? Because the only way to scale under the current system is to build a separate business on top of the audience. There’s no native way to raise capital the way a startup can.

And fans? They’re already behaving like shareholders. They clip, they meme, they promote for free. They evangelize without upside. Right now, all of that value accrues to the creator alone. Equity would flip that, fans would be incentivized partners, not just passive consumers.

Put together, this moment is different. Platforms are consolidating power, ads are dying, AI is flooding the supply of content, and trust has become the most valuable currency on the internet. That makes creator equity not just possible, but inevitable.

If creators are businesses, and trust is their balance sheet, then the market is the obvious next step. A system where fans and investors can buy into that trust, where loyalty isn’t just emotional but financial.

Of course, there are a thousand questions. What happens when a scandal hits? What does “default” look like for a human being? Do we end up financializing our identities in ways that go too far? Or does this unlock the next great leap in the internet economy?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. What I do know is that the direction feels inevitable. The same way the freezer made ice cheap and everywhere, equity will turn creator monetization from a service into infrastructure. Always on, always liquid, always tied to trust.

This isn’t just theory. A few of us are already experimenting with the idea, early work is happening at ContentYield. Call it a prototype for what “Ice 3.0” of the creator economy could look like.

Whether you think this future is exciting or terrifying, one thing feels certain: it’s coming faster than most people expect.