Some of Web3’s most prominent investors are backing a new kind of fund: One that exclusively invests in non-fungible tokens. The latest NFT-only fund is Curated, supported by Andreessen Horowitz and Seven Seven Six Ventures founder Alexis Ohanian.
While Curated has multiple goals, its primary aim is to collect “blue-chip NFTs” from popular, established collections with substantial trading volume. Some examples of blue-chip NFT collections include the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Doodles, Cool Cats, and Fidenza by Hobbs.
Curated creators Todd Goldberg and Andrew Jiang announced the fund on Twitter last week. They wrote that NFTs present an opportunity to invest in “culture” at “internet scale” and that Curated will collect the “top assets” in the NFT space and help the creators behind them.
The Curated team shared that this “help” for creators will include smart contract deployment, one of the more complex and technical aspects of producing NFTs for a broad audience. The team consists of some “builders and creators,” including Shiva Rajaraman, the product manager at OpenSea, and representatives from Magic Eden.
NFTs Following Up on a Stellar Performance in 2021
Non-fungible tokens had a breakout year in 2021, with DappRadar reporting the industry taking in $21 billion in total sales. “NFT” was named the word of the year by a top dictionary, and the term inspired both enthusiastic and angry responses within the general population.
This year has seen a little bit of a lull, with a big bull market in January followed by a steep drop in trading throughout February and March. While some are concerned that this signals the first true bear market for NFTs, others believe that world events have caused a drop in prices throughout all markets — crypto, NFTs, stocks, and more.
The Curated fund is not the first of its kind within the NFT space, with one major influencer creating his own seemingly out of personal funds. Because the market is starting to mature, analysts may see NFTs as long-term investments, especially those “blue-chip” collections at the industry’s top.
Although it seems likely that Curated will invest in the familiar names in the NFT zeitgeist, it will be interesting to see if they get a little riskier and try some upcoming collections like Azuki or Alien Frens. Even though those collections have not been around for very long, they have experienced high demand and quickly tried to establish themselves as among the best.