Digital artwork will ‘age like positive wine’: Inside Flamingo DAO’s 9-figure NFT assortment

It’s been known as essentially the most highly effective collector DAO in NFTs and the numbers again it up. Flamingo DAO, a collective of crypto-native artwork lovers, traders, technologists and founders, has quietly amassed one of the crucial formidable NFT portfolios on the planet, which even at the moment is price effectively above 9 figures.

Regardless of its comparatively low public profile, Flamingo’s has been extremely influential since launching in 2020.

“We launched with assist from Tribute Labs (previously known as OpenLaw) at a time when ETH traded close to $350, ‘DeFi Summer season’ dominated the headlines, and NFTs remained a fringe pursuit,” says Flamingo spokesperson and member Chris Cable. “That underserved nook of the market felt like the correct place for a brand new experiment in collaborative capital deployment.”

The thought was sparked by members of The LAO, the primary crypto-native funding DAO, who had lately backed SuperRare. Their conviction that digital artwork deserved its personal construction led to Flamingo’s formation, formally opening in September 2020 to members. 

Flamingo’s first NFT acquisition was some parcels of land within the pioneering metaverse challenge Somnium Area. Its assortment has now grown to 10,000+ NFTs, a museum-worthy treasure chest of generative artwork, historic items similar to CryptoPunks and AI artwork.

The DAO’s title isn’t any accident both, “Flamingos thrive in massive, cooperative colonies, and their pink coloration comes from what they absorb — prawns and shrimp. In the identical approach, our collective gathers collectively, stays in sync and lets the tradition we take up tint all the pieces we create. Flamingos make a becoming emblem for us,” Cable says.

Excessive-profile members of the DAO embody entrepreneur and creator of VeeFriends, Gary Vaynerchuk, Artwork Blocks founder Snowfro, prolific collector and NFT creator j1mmy.eth, enterprise investor Derek Edwards, Flamingo & The LAO co-founder Aaron Wright, Aave founder Stani Kulechov, Tribute Labs ops lead Priyanka Desai and Cable himself.

“It’s this mixture of pioneering artists, top-tier funds, technologists, and fanatics that makes Flamingo actually particular. We’ve acquired individuals who had been there within the early days of Ethereum, of us who may not in any other case cross paths, coming collectively on this DAO construction. It’s the key sauce,” says Cable.

“There are deep friendships, new ventures, and a shared love of NFTs and crypto that ties all of it collectively. We’ve managed to create one thing actually particular.”

The crown jewels of crypto artwork – Inside Flamingo DAO’s vault

The gathering of Flamingo DAO is iconic and boasts large cultural significance. Its holdings replicate a deep conviction in digital artwork’s long-term worth and a collector’s eye for traditionally necessary property.

On the peak of NFT mania, its assortment was estimated at round $1 billion. However valuing its assortment is troublesome as a result of it comprises so many distinctive and one-of-one units and items. In keeping with the positioning NFT valuations, Flamingo’s major pockets present holdings are price in extra 23,300 ETH, or round $61 million USD, however this omits its Alien CryptoPunk #2890, which is well the DAO’s most respected single piece, with a comparable Alien Punk presently listed at 5,000 ETH (~$13.1mil). There are additionally a number of personal wallets, together with an in depth one-of-one assortment that poses challenges for NFT valuation platforms.

Flamingo likes to go heavy into what they describe as “networked collections,” possessing massive portions of CryptoPunks, Chromie Squiggles, Terraforms by Mathcastles, Ringers, Meebits, Reminiscences of Qilin and Autoglyphs.

Amongst its crown jewels is a full attribute set of CryptoPunks and a full Autoglyphs set — each groundbreaking tasks from NFT pioneer Larva Labs.

“We maintain the one full attribute set of CryptoPunks in existence, in addition to a full Autoglyphs set. We love the Larva Labs workforce and are very pleasant with Matt and John.”  

“We tried to get a full Meebits set however rapidly realized that there are too many Meebit attributes to make that possible. Though a enjoyable reality is that the triple snout pig Meebit – a 1:1 within the assortment is owned by a Flamingo member individually, so perhaps if we REALLY wished to make it occur sooner or later, we might.”

Inside Flamingo DAO’s Vault: Key Holdings 

230 x CryptoPunks (together with an Alien and Zombie Punk)

301 x Chromie Squiggles by Snowfro 

15 x Autoglyphs by Larva Labs 

24 x Ringers by Dmitri Cherniak

6 x Fidenzas by Tyler Hobbs

372 x Meebits by Larva Labs

304 x Terraforms by Mathcastles 

12 x Gazers by Matt Kane 

46 x Anticyclones by William Mapan 

12 x Grifters by XCOPY 

29 x Reminiscences of Qilin by Emily Xie 

18 x Meridian by Matt DesLauriers

8 x Winds of Yawanawa by Yawanawa and Refik Anadol

15 x beef brothko by die with essentially the most likes

11 x Themes and Variations by Vera Molnár, in collaboration with Martin Grasser 

A hive thoughts with conviction – How Flamingo DAO collects digital tradition

Flamingo DAO’s method to accumulating isn’t pushed by hype or hypothesis; it’s an evolving thesis rooted in conviction, hive thoughts collaboration and a way of cultural foresight.

“We wrestle to outline it with a single sentence,” Cable admits. “But when I had been to take a stab, I’d say our guiding concept is to construct a time capsule of milestone works in networked digital artwork items that pushed the medium ahead and can nonetheless matter when at the moment’s hype cycles are lengthy forgotten.”

This philosophy has formed Flamingo’s eclectic but intentional portfolio. From foundational collections like CryptoPunks and Autoglyphs to early bets on AI-generated artwork like Misplaced Robbies, Flamingo has a for much longer time horizon than the usual dopamine-charged NFT flipper. The DAO could be very intentional with its evaluation on the NFT market; figuring out seminal collections, recognizing rising artists and subcategories, and appearing earlier than alternative slips by way of their fingers.

“We’re not simply chasing blue chips — we’ve really very hardly ever purchased any actually actually costly property until we’ve enormous conviction on a networked assortment. The most important acquisition we made was the Alien Punk. We already had enormous conviction on Punks, and we wished to solidify that earlier than it ran away from us. By way of 1-of-1s, we’ve commissioned and purchased numerous these however solely with artists we’ve deep conviction in,” Cable says.

“We a lot choose being early; that’s why we’ve over 10,000 NFTs. On common, the worth of lots of them is way decrease than many would have thought. We’ve been very lucky to have been early to a bunch of traits.”

Underpinning all of it is Flamingo’s signature “hive thoughts” mentality. The DAO leans on the decentralized experience of its 70+ members, every with deep data in area of interest areas from generative artwork to AI to 1-of-1s to moments and people that form tradition. 

Choice-making is fluid and trust-based. Any member can deploy as much as 5 ETH with out prior approval, whereas bigger purchases are fast-tracked by way of “emoji voting” within the Flamingo Discord channel. There’s a collective belief amongst its members that’s extremely prevalent. That belief has yielded some huge wins.

“One member minted Bored Apes utilizing that 5 ETH threshold simply because they appreciated the look of them. That one choice ended up being massively worthwhile for the DAO,” Cable recollects. 

Whereas Flamingo places plenty of conviction in main collections, it actively helps rising artists like “die with essentially the most likes” and sometimes leans into the perimeters of tradition.

“We choose being early. It’s typical enterprise logic. Most issues received’t pan out, however the ones that do can form historical past.”

Why Flamingo DAO stays bullish on NFTs – Tradition, code, and the lengthy sport

Whereas the broader market has cooled and sentiment has softened, Flamingo DAO’s conviction in NFTs stays as robust as ever. To its members, NFTs symbolize way over speculative property; they’re digital constructing blocks for the following period of tradition.

“Expertise has all the time been humanity’s favorite sandbox. Earlier than NFTs, crypto was largely a cypherpunk meets Wall Avenue nook which was very disruptive, however largely code and capital with a slim tradition. NFTs flipped that script. All of a sudden the blockchain wasn’t only a database; it was a clean canvas the place code, artwork, and possession might merge.”  

That cultural collision is what initially drew Flamingo in, watching tradition and crypto collide in actual time.

“What retains us right here is the fixed reinvention. Artists and collectors are nonetheless stretching the medium. For instance, artists are turning sensible contracts into dynamic sculptures and metadata into dwelling tales. NFTs let creativity transfer at web pace whereas preserving authenticity endlessly onchain. That fusion of experimentation, neighborhood, and permanence is just too thrilling to stroll away from.”

Even by way of the cruel bear market of the again half of 2022 and past, Flamingo stays unfazed. The thesis is straightforward: the world is barely changing into extra digital, and tradition, as soon as unattainable to monetize in digital areas, is lastly discovering its financial kind.

“Digital tradition hasn’t been in a position to be correctly monetized regardless of its essential significance within the trendy age. In the identical approach that many well-known conventional artistic endeavors on the time of their conception weren’t correctly acknowledged, it was solely over lengthy stretches of time that they cemented themselves as being necessary cultural artefacts. NFTs might be no totally different, and lots of inside our assortment will age like positive wine.”

Cable added, “Most might be caught off guard, even these already right here. They’re nonetheless considering by way of collectibles somewhat than cultural preservation and historic artifacts. Tradition is upstream of all the pieces. We’re long-term oriented, and our assortment and ethos replicate it.”

Speedy Fireplace Q&A with Chris Cable

Who inside Flamingo DAO are good follows on Twitter (X) and for high-quality NFT content material generally?

Chris F is a superb comply with. You’ll should put up with plenty of his baseball chat however he has some bangers and has been spot on to a bunch of actually necessary traits.

Derek Edwards additionally. Derek is salt of the earth and actually pretty. I might additionally shout out a podcast known as “Internet Society” that Aaron Wright, Pri, Chris F and Derek all characteristic on.

Should you might solely preserve three collections from your complete Flamingo portfolio, which three collections would most definitely have consensus? 

It’s onerous. I believe that our full Autoglyphs set could be one. Then our CryptoPunk assortment. Lastly, in all probability our Artwork Blocks assortment. It’s simply unbelievable. We’ve got an enormous breadth of Artwork Blocks and largely that’s due to Snowfro being the DAO as effectively however there’s simply so many inside Flamingo which might be full-blown generative artwork nerds.

Everybody actually loves it and it’s simply been an enormous ardour for thus many people. It’s actually bonded so many individuals inside the DAO as effectively, so the truth that Snowfro is in it, it was a extremely particular time when all of that was taking place.

Are there any 1-of-1 items that Flamingo holds pricey to their coronary heart? 

We commissioned a bunch of 1-of-1s fairly early. The one we did with Joe Pease involves thoughts. 

We even have a Beeple, it’s not 1-of-1, we by no means acquired him to do a kind of, however the “On a regular basis: Group Effort” options just a few totally different Flamingo members, so while it’s a 1 of 100 that was a cool piece that we’ve just a few of.

Are there 2-3 artists or organizations that Flamingo has collected in latest instances which have generated plenty of enthusiasm inside the DAO?

1 – die with essentially the most likes

We love die with essentially the most likes. We predict he’s nice. 

2 – Fellowship 

Fellowship continues to ship nice stuff. 

3 – Holly Herndon 

We actually like Holly Herndon. She’s somewhat bit older, however there’s just a few folks inside the AI artwork world which I simply don’t assume have actually caught up but. By way of worth, I believe that AI artwork remains to be underpriced.

Chris, what are a few of your private favourite NFTs within the Flamingo assortment?

I really like lots of our 1-of-1s like this from Joe Pease. Additionally like a bunch of our commissioned works from Nicolas Sasson, in addition to having a gentle spot for our Grant Yun commissioned work because it highlights the ‘remix’ tradition that I like to see in our area.

Lastly, I really like our Boomer Skelly Meebit. Buying him and the quotes round it (featured under) are emblematic of the enjoyable we’ve within the DAO. 

How does Flamingo method rising classes like AI artwork or generative artwork?

We’re extremely enthusiastic about each of these subcategories and have intensive collections inside each. Typically, when a brand new subcategory emerges inside the area, we need to dig in rapidly and purchase early items and get acquainted with the artists. This was very a lot the case in each generative artwork and AI artwork, and likewise images, which by no means actually took off in the identical approach.

Are there particular sectors inside NFTs that Flamingo is very enthusiastic about proper now?

We proceed to actually like AI artwork — platforms like Verse and Fellowship are doing glorious work and showcasing some phenomenal artwork. It’s in all probability the sector that we’ve been most energetic in lately. We additionally like supporting artists whom we’ve supported traditionally if they’ve new networked items coming to market.

LINKS: 

Flamingo DAO web site assortment show 

Flamingo DAO show on Gallery 

Flamingo DAO major pockets 

X (Twitter) account