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 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 Memories 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 the most likes
11 x Themes and Variations by Vera Molnár, in collaboration with Martin Grasser
A hive mind with conviction – How Flamingo DAO collects digital culture
Flamingo DAO’s approach to collecting isn’t driven by hype or speculation; it’s an evolving thesis rooted in conviction, hive mind collaboration and a sense of cultural foresight.
“We struggle to define it with a single sentence,” Cable admits. “But if I were to take a stab, I’d say our guiding idea is to build a time capsule of milestone works in networked digital art pieces that pushed the medium forward and will still matter when today’s hype cycles are long forgotten.”
This philosophy has shaped Flamingo’s eclectic yet intentional portfolio. From foundational collections like CryptoPunks and Autoglyphs to early bets on AI-generated art like Lost Robbies, Flamingo has a much longer time horizon than the standard dopamine-charged NFT flipper. The DAO is very intentional with its analysis on the NFT market; identifying seminal collections, spotting emerging artists and subcategories, and acting before opportunity slips through their fingers.
“We’re not just chasing blue chips — we’ve actually very rarely bought any really really expensive assets unless we have huge conviction on a networked collection. The biggest acquisition we made was the Alien Punk. We already had huge conviction on Punks, and we wanted to solidify that before it ran away from us. In terms of 1-of-1s, we’ve commissioned and bought a number of those but only with artists we have deep conviction in,” Cable says.
“We much prefer being early; that’s why we have over 10,000 NFTs. On average, the price of many of them is much lower than many would have thought. We’ve been very fortunate to have been early to a bunch of trends.”
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Underpinning it all is Flamingo’s signature “hive mind” mentality. The DAO leans on the decentralized expertise of its 70+ members, each with deep knowledge in niche areas from generative art to AI to 1-of-1s to moments and individuals that shape culture.
Decision-making is fluid and trust-based. Any member can deploy up to 5 ETH without prior approval, while larger purchases are fast-tracked through “emoji voting” in the Flamingo Discord channel. There’s a collective trust among its members that is highly prevalent. That trust has yielded some big wins.
“One member minted Bored Apes using that 5 ETH threshold just because they liked the look of them. That one decision ended up being massively profitable for the DAO,” Cable recalls.
While Flamingo puts a lot of conviction in major collections, it actively supports emerging artists like “die with the most likes” and often leans into the edges of culture.
“We prefer being early. It’s typical venture logic. Most things won’t pan out, but the ones that do can shape history.”
Why Flamingo DAO remains bullish on NFTs – Culture, code, and the long game
While the broader market has cooled and sentiment has softened, Flamingo DAO’s conviction in NFTs remains as strong as ever. To its members, NFTs represent far more than speculative assets; they’re digital building blocks for the next era of culture.
“Technology has always been humanity’s favourite sandbox. Before NFTs, crypto was mostly a cypherpunk meets Wall Street corner which was very disruptive, but largely code and capital with a narrow culture. NFTs flipped that script. Suddenly the blockchain wasn’t just a database; it was a blank canvas where code, art, and ownership could merge.”
That cultural collision is what originally drew Flamingo in, watching culture and crypto collide in real time.
“What keeps us here is the constant reinvention. Artists and collectors are still stretching the medium. For example, artists are turning smart contracts into dynamic sculptures and metadata into living stories. NFTs let creativity move at internet speed while preserving authenticity forever onchain. That fusion of experimentation, community, and permanence is simply too exciting to walk away from.”
Even through the harsh bear market of the back half of 2022 and beyond, Flamingo remains unfazed. The thesis is simple: the world is only becoming more digital, and culture, once impossible to monetize in digital spaces, is finally finding its economic form.
“Digital culture hasn’t been able to be properly monetized despite its critical importance in the modern age. In the same way that many famous traditional works of art at the time of their conception weren’t properly recognized, it was only over long stretches of time that they cemented themselves as being important cultural artefacts. NFTs will be no different, and many within our collection will age like fine wine.”
Cable added, “Most will be caught off guard, even those already here. They’re still thinking in terms of collectibles rather than cultural preservation and historic artifacts. Culture is upstream of everything. We are long-term oriented, and our collection and ethos reflect it.”
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Rapid Fire Q&A with Chris Cable
Who within Flamingo DAO are good follows on Twitter (X) and for high-quality NFT content in general?
Chris F is a great follow. You’ll have to put up with a lot of his baseball chat but he has some bangers and has been spot on to a bunch of really important trends.
Derek Edwards also. Derek is salt of the earth and really lovely. I would also shout out a podcast called “Net Society” that Aaron Wright, Pri, Chris F and Derek all feature on.
If you could only keep three collections from the entire Flamingo portfolio, which three collections would most likely have consensus?
It’s hard. I think that our full Autoglyphs set would be one. Then our CryptoPunk collection. Lastly, probably our Art Blocks collection. It’s just incredible. We have a huge breadth of Art Blocks and largely that’s because of Snowfro being the DAO as well but there’s just so many within Flamingo that are full-blown generative art nerds.
Everyone really loves it and it’s just been a huge passion for so many of us. It’s really bonded so many people within the DAO as well, so the fact that Snowfro is in it, it was a really special time when all of that was happening.
Are there any 1-of-1 pieces that Flamingo holds dear to their heart?
We commissioned a bunch of 1-of-1s pretty early. The one we did with Joe Pease comes to mind.
We also have a Beeple, it’s not 1-of-1, we never got him to do one of those, but the “Everyday: Group Effort” features a few different Flamingo members, so whilst it’s a 1 of 100 that was a cool piece that we have a few of.
Are there 2-3 artists or organizations that Flamingo has collected in recent times that have generated a lot of enthusiasm within the DAO?
We love die with the most likes. We think he’s great.
2 – Fellowship
Fellowship continues to deliver great stuff.
3 – Holly Herndon
We really like Holly Herndon. She’s a little bit older, but there’s a few people within the AI art world which I just don’t think have really caught up yet. In terms of value, I think that AI art is still underpriced.
Chris, what are some of your personal favorite NFTs in the Flamingo collection?
I love many of our 1-of-1s like this from Joe Pease. Also like a bunch of our commissioned works from Nicolas Sasson, as well as having a soft spot for our Grant Yun commissioned work as it highlights the ‘remix’ culture that I love to see in our space.
Lastly, I love our Boomer Skelly Meebit. Purchasing him and the quotes around it (featured below) are emblematic of the fun we have in the DAO.
How does Flamingo approach emerging categories like AI art or generative art?
We are incredibly excited about both of those subcategories and have extensive collections within both. Generally, when a new subcategory emerges within the space, we want to dig in quickly and acquire early pieces and get acquainted with the artists. This was very much the case in both generative art and AI art, and also photography, which never really took off in the same way.
Are there specific sectors within NFTs that Flamingo is especially excited about right now?
We continue to really like AI art — platforms like Verse and Fellowship are doing excellent work and showcasing some phenomenal art. It’s probably the sector that we’ve been most active in recently. We also like supporting artists whom we’ve supported historically if they have new networked pieces coming to market.
LINKS:
Flamingo DAO website collection display
Flamingo DAO display on Gallery
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Greg Oakford
Greg Oakford is the General Manager for Upside DAO, a leading Australian crypto & web3 co-working hub and investment fund. He is an avid NFT collector and the co-founder of NFT Fest Australia. Prior to crypto, Greg was a marketing and sponsorship specialist in the sports industry working on professional events.