a big splash

Hot Houston summer lagoon spot makes a splash with NFT membership

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Each NFT pass to Lago Mar Crystal Lagoon is available for $170 to $210.

Photo courtesy of Lagoonfest Texas

One of the most hyped — and most baffling — tech innovations on the planet is making waves in Texas City.

The Lago Mar Crystal Lagoon waterpark says it’s now selling season passes based on NFT technology. NFT stands for non-fungible token.

“At a basic level, an NFT is a digital asset that links ownership to unique physical or digital items, such as works of art, real estate, music, or videos,” the Insider website explains. “NFTs can be considered modern-day collectibles. They’re bought and sold online, and represent a digital proof of ownership of any given item. NFTs are securely recorded on a blockchain — the same technology behind cryptocurrencies — which ensures the asset is one-of-a-kind.”

The Lago Mar lagoon, a 12-acre waterpark that opened in 2020, says its NFT-based season pass may be the first anywhere to enable admission into an attraction. The park’s traditional and NFT season passes provide unlimited access to the lagoon, which hosts annual events like Lagoonfest Texas. The lagoon anchors a planned 100-acre, mixed-use entertainment district.

Uri Man, CEO of The Lagoon Development Co., which developed the Lago Mar venue, says the NFT pass offers perks that a regular pass doesn’t. For example, the NFT pass lets you enjoy special activities at the state’s largest crystal lagoon, such as setting sail with a professional captain or going kayaking.

“This payment option is buzzing around the event and attractions community, with entertainment and crypto experts theorizing how places like Disney World might be able to offer NFT entry and experiences,” Man says in a news release. “We’re not just talking about it, though — we’re doing it, and we are the first in the world, as far as I know.”

Each NFT pass is available for $170 to $210. Passes can be purchased with several types of cryptocurrency.

The Lago Mar lagoon’s NFT partner is OpenSea, an NFT marketplace. OpenSea’s investors include Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban, Austin entrepreneur and author Tim Ferriss, and NBA star and former University of Texas basketball standout Kevin Durant.

It's possible that NFT passes someday could pop up at Lagoon Development’s other waterparks. It already operates a crystal lagoon in Humble, is building another one in Iowa Colony, and expects to break ground soon on lagoons in Cypress, Katy, and Splendora.

To say that NFTs are exploding in popularity in the Houston area and elsewhere is a massive understatement. One study shows NFT sales hit $17.7 billion in 2021, up from $82.5 million in 2020, according to the Axios news website. Investment bank Jefferies predicts the value of the global NFT market will exceed $35 billion in 2022 and $80 billion in 2025, the CoinDesk news website reports.

The Texas City lagoon is just one of many businesses being captivated by the growing allure of NFTs. For instance, speculation continues to swirl that Disney’s theme parks will eventually adopt NFT season passes.

Furthermore, the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks may turn to NFTs for ticketing, and Southern California’s annual Coachella music festival is selling lifetime passes as NFTs.

“NFT tickets have the ability to not only take ticketing technology to the next level, but to also enable direct relationships between the seller and the buyer, and the performer and the fan — creating a connection that begins as soon as the NFT ticket is purchased, and continuing long after the event has ended,” the Better Marketing blog points out.

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This story originally ran on our sister site InnovationMap.

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Jobs report

Texas clocks in as No. 7 best state to find a job, new report says

Photo by The Jopwell Collection on Unsplash

It's easier to find a job in Texas than in nearly any other state.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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