By Harmon Leon
One of the most mythical characters in the entire crypto art world is Whale Shark, a legendary collector who has amassed one of the largest and most valued collections in the world. Slow moving, Whale Shark takes great care in finding the right investment, filtering through artists with his taste for popular NFTs.
A gentle giant, Whale Shark marks his prey.
Yet, no one knows much about the allusive Whale Shark’s true identity. In interviews, Whale Shark goes by an avatar that looks like a steampunk version of the Monopoly guy. His Twitter account simply states: “I am the collector of all things Bleeding Edge and Scarce.”
The official origin story in the Whale Shark dossier gives scattered details of the man who is one of the largest holders of such esteemed NFT artists as Pac, XCOPY, and Hackatao – with a collection estimated at 220,000 NFTs.
In his eccentric modesty, he states, “I’m very fortunate to be able to have chosen those artists as well as have some amazing relationships with them as well.”
Speculation abounds that Whale Shark started his career as a big cryptocurrency guy from the U.K. – now based in Hong Kong, who began purchasing Bitcoin back in 2012 – and allocated roughly half his monthly salary towards that. Then, in 2015, he converted all his Bitcoin to Ethereum.
The big gamechanger was in 2019, when Whale Shark entered the world of NFTs and discovered he had a keen eye for crypto art, which was funny and intriguing because he had never once collected a single piece of traditional art.
“NFTs was really the first time I ever purchased my very first art piece. It allowed me to collect anonymously without any judgment and just to collect what I love,” he says. “The first NFTs that I purchased were from a game called ‘Gods Unchained.’” And from there, the floodgates opened, and Whale Shark was off to the races – collecting NFT art on SuperRare.
In May of 2020, Whale Shark took his most valuable NFTs and created The Whale Vault community, a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) with roughly 20,000 active members.
Now, with backstory firmly in place, it’s time to journey upriver into the heart of darkness to learn more about the mythical Whale Shark; his hopes and dreams, and what makes a good investment for a better NFT tomorrow.
The Perfect Storm for the NFT Surge
From his home base in Hong Kong, Whale Shark jumps into a Zoom call. Ground rules: It can only be a voice call. But instead of spouting “The Horror. The Horror,” the Colonel Kurtz of the NFT world throws me off by calling me “bro.”
“My view on NFTs has always been that it’s a natural evolution of digital assets,” he…
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