It’s been called the most powerful collector DAO in NFTs and the numbers back it up. Flamingo DAO, a collective of crypto-native art lovers, investors, technologists and founders, has quietly amassed one of the most formidable NFT portfolios on the planet, which even today is worth well above nine figures.
Despite its relatively low public profile, Flamingo’s has been highly influential since launching in 2020.
“We launched with support from Tribute Labs (formerly called OpenLaw) at a time when ETH traded near $350, ‘DeFi Summer’ dominated the headlines, and NFTs remained a fringe pursuit,” says Flamingo spokesperson and member Chris Cable. “That underserved corner of the market felt like the right place for a new experiment in collaborative capital deployment.”
The idea was sparked by members of The LAO, the first crypto-native investment DAO, who had recently backed SuperRare. Their conviction that digital art deserved its own structure led to Flamingo’s formation, officially opening in September 2020 to members.
Flamingo’s first NFT acquisition was some parcels of land in the pioneering metaverse project Somnium Space. Its collection has now grown to 10,000+ NFTs, a museum-worthy treasure chest of generative art, historical pieces such as CryptoPunks and AI art.
The DAO’s name is no accident either, “Flamingos thrive in large, cooperative colonies, and their pink color comes from what they take in — prawns and shrimp. In the same way, our collective gathers together, stays in sync and lets the culture we absorb tint everything we create. Flamingos make a fitting emblem for us,” Cable says.
High-profile members of the DAO include entrepreneur and creator of VeeFriends, Gary Vaynerchuk, Art Blocks founder Snowfro, prolific collector and NFT creator j1mmy.eth, venture 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 mix of pioneering artists, top-tier funds, technologists, and enthusiasts that makes Flamingo really special. We’ve got people who were there in the early days of Ethereum, folks who might not otherwise cross paths, coming together in this DAO structure. It’s the secret sauce,” says Cable.
“There are deep friendships, new ventures, and a shared love of NFTs and crypto that ties it all together. We’ve managed to create something really special.”
The crown jewels of crypto art – Inside Flamingo DAO’s vault
The collection of Flamingo DAO is iconic and boasts tremendous cultural significance. Its holdings reflect a deep conviction in digital art’s long-term value and a collector’s eye for historically important assets.
At the peak of NFT mania, its collection was estimated at around $1 billion. But valuing its collection is difficult because it contains so many unique and one-of-one sets and pieces. According to the site NFT valuations, Flamingo’s primary wallet current holdings are worth in excess 23,300 ETH, or around $61 million USD, but this omits its Alien CryptoPunk #2890, which is easily the DAO’s most valuable single piece, with a comparable Alien Punk currently listed at 5,000 ETH (~$13.1mil). There are also several private wallets, along with an extensive one-of-one collection that poses challenges for NFT valuation platforms.
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Flamingo likes to go heavy into what they describe as “networked collections,” possessing large quantities of CryptoPunks, Chromie Squiggles, Terraforms by Mathcastles, Ringers, Meebits, Memories of Qilin and Autoglyphs.
Among its crown jewels is a full attribute set of CryptoPunks and a full Autoglyphs set — both groundbreaking projects from NFT pioneer Larva Labs.
“We hold the only full attribute set of CryptoPunks in existence, as well as a full Autoglyphs set. We love the Larva Labs team and are very friendly with Matt and John.”
“We attempted to get a full Meebits set but quickly realized that there are too many Meebit attributes to make that feasible. Although a fun fact is that the triple snout pig Meebit – a 1:1 in the collection is owned by a Flamingo member individually, so maybe if we REALLY wanted to make it happen in the future, we could.”
Inside Flamingo DAO’s Vault: Key Holdings
230 x CryptoPunks (including an…
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