Is this the best NFT collection in the world? DCinvestor, NFT Collector

“I didn’t expect ‘priceless’ over time to happen in six months,” says DC Investor on how quickly his thesis came true after buying NFTs in 2021.

Boasting one of the best NFT collections on the planet, DCinvestor went all in on some iconic buys in early 2021 and is one of the most respected and insightful personalities on Crypto X. 
Some say that DCinvestor has the best individual collection of NFTs in the world — although he’s far too modest to claim that himself.
“I don’t think that’s true. I think that there’s a lot of people with tremendous collections that I admire,” he says. “I’m flattered when people say that but I don’t think it’s the greatest. It’s certainly not the most valuable. There are people with more valuable wallets.” 
“But it’s a collection that I worked hard to assemble and I try to curate it thoughtfully, recognizing that I wouldn’t have the funds to collect everything, especially because I don’t really sell stuff.

I feel like I bought stuff that I felt would be culturally important long term and that was why I did it. For better or for worse, I’m kind of stuck with these. I don’t think that even in this crypto cycle, we’re going to see the true price potential of these assets.” 

Who is DCinvestor?

First jumping into Bitcoin in 2013, the former management consultant has gone through many cycles and is a strong advocate for the Ethereum ecosystem. 
He purchased six CryptoPunks, including his iconic PFP hoodie punk, and six Autoglyphs in the first quarter Q1 of 2021 as his conviction for the space grew.
“My thesis was when I started collecting NFTs and especially with Punks was, if this stuff becomes culturally important, and by extension, economically important, there’s not going to be a lot of time to collect some of these things,” he says.
“So I kind of went into land grab mode where I took some of the profits that I made from trading some of these DeFi coins and things like that.”

He even borrowed against his crypto to buy those pieces, which he says is not a strategy he recommends.

I borrowed against it because I didn’t want to sell my Ether in the middle of a bull market. I also didn’t want to sell my DeFi tokens at that point.” 

CryptoPunk #2702 by Larva Labs – owned by DCinvestor and his first Punk purchase
Technically the first NFT he collected was a CryptoKitty in 2017, but the Washington D.C. resident says that doesn’t really count.
“I don’t really consider that my true entry into NFTs because that was a different time. NFTs were a novelty at that point. People didn’t really know what they were for. It wasn’t something I was paying a ton of attention to. I did think this is going to be huge for gaming one day. That was really how I thought about it, primarily for gaming,” he says.
“I bought one Gen 0 CryptoKitty, and then I didn’t really get into NFTs further until I started collecting all those Gods Unchained cards. That’s really where I started to put more serious money into it. Frankly, it was just a way for me to distract myself during the bear market as I was watching everything go to zero.”

DCinvestor’s iconic NFT collection 

While NFT collections are not as liquid as fungible coins, today, DC’s collection would total an estimated 4,200 ETH or $11.6 million today.
Some of his most notable pieces in the collection include: 
6 x Autoglyphs 
6 x CryptoPunks 
9 x Fidenzas 
23 x Ringers
6 x Chromie Squiggles
19 x Memories of Qilin
8 x XCOPY 
3 x DEAFBEEF
Plus multiple Beeples, a Twin Flame by Justin Aversano and 28 Meebits.
“My mindset was I’m just going to go in and put in an amount that I’m willing to basically lose. If I’m wrong, then the stuff goes to zero. But if I’m right, then they could become priceless over time,” says DCinvestor.

I didn’t expect priceless over time to happen in six months. That was something that was a bit of a surprise to me.” 

“Part of my approach was I’m just going to collect it. I’m not going to buy anything that I really need to sell. That was always my philosophy. If I’m putting money in that I feel like I need in a year, then I’m probably going to miss out on the bigger upside of this when I believe this stuff becomes a lot more important.” 
Fidenza #972 by Tyler Hobbs – owned by DCinvestor
Autoglyph #363 by Larva Labs – owned by DCinvestor
CryptoPunk #9637 by Larva Labs – owned by DCinvestor

Describing generative art as a genre 

As a big fan of generative art and particularly gen art on-chain, DCinvestor has collected pieces from artists such as William Mapan (Anticyclone), Emily Xie (Memories of Qilin), Snowfro (Chrome Squiggles), Larva Labs (Autoglyphs) and Tyler Hobbs (Fidenzas).
“Generative art introduces this element of randomness into it. It’s almost like a loss of creative control for the artist. I’m not an artist, but this is just my view of it. I think it’s fascinating,” DCinvestor says.
“It’s almost like the artist has created a machine and put it on-chain, and then a user interacts with it, and the artist can’t control precisely what comes out of it. But they have set it up with certain parameters, and then the user gets something from that, and whatever is outputted from that becomes part of that collection.”
“It’s permissionless, it’s decentralized, and the outputs can be traded in a permissionless and decentralized way. I don’t know if a normie would understand that. To me, those are important things to the value proposition and how this works.”
Anticyclone #431 by William Mapan – owned by DCinvestor
Chromie Squiggle #5651 by Snowfro – owned by DCinvestor
Memories of Qilin #569 by Emily Xie – owned by DCinvestor

Bullish on the convergence of technological advances

As someone who remembers the world pre-internet got online in 1991 and watched the web’s evolution, DCinvestor can’t remember a more exciting time as the convergence of crypto, NFTs, AI and AR/VR marks the start of a new technological wave.
“When I think about the progress that we achieved between 1990 and 2010, I think that was really the booming time for web technology,” he says. “It just kept going all the way through to 2008, many would say 2010. That’s really when the modern smartphone started as we more or less know it.”

Frankly, for the past like 13 years, I’ve almost been depressed. Not properly depressed, but in the context of, is the magic still there? I’ve had moments. Crypto was one of those moments where I thought this is awesome but from a pure technology point of view, stuff that we buy and bring into our homes, I hadn’t seen a ton that really wowed me.”

Getting his hands on one of the Apple Vision Pros as soon as they dropped, DC is bullish while acknowledging the device’s best days are very much still to come.
“We’re still early mass market, but imagine the arms race that’s going to ensue now between Apple, Meta and whoever else gets into this?”
“I’m so enthusiastic for what is happening and for people like all of us who are very digital. The world is going to be our oyster. I think everyone else is going to be struggling to figure this out, but we’re going to have it figured out.”  

Apple Vision Pro is great for NFTs 

He recorded this interview with Cointelegraph through his Apple Vision Pro, after spending a few days immersing himself. 
“I feel like I’m more present in my physical surroundings because I have my content that I’m looking at around me,” he says. 
“It’s been a glimpse into the future, we are going to get to a point where we are interacting with our digital world in a way that’s almost seamless from our physical world. ” 
DCinvestor inside his Apple Vision Pro with Cointelegraph’s Greg Oakford.
And DC notes that viewing NFTs through the Apple Vision Pro could be a game changer.
“It’s a scale thing. When you see art and it’s just on your regular screen it doesn’t have the same presence. We’ve all had that experience of seeing something on a large scale. If we walk into a museum, we turn a corner, and then there’s this huge fucking painting, your jaw drops, and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, look at the size of this thing,’ or you look at the ceiling, and someone has painted a mural, and it looks incredible. It just has that scale and that presence. I was never able to really experience that with NFTs before using this headset.”

Adopting a winner’s mindset 

DC primarily tweets about crypto and NFTs, but he’s also inclined to share his thoughts on broader life philosophy. This tweet last month, in particular, was important for him to get out into the world.

“I feel like what I see a lot on my timeline in society today is, for lack of a better word, it’s almost like defeatism. I can’t do this. Oh, the odds are against me. Oh, I can’t because this bad thing happened to me. There’s no way that I can succeed. I think that thought process is very, very destructive. I think it’s a societal epidemic where everyone’s been told, if you’re not successful, then it’s not your fault,” DCinvestor says.
“There’s definitely an element of luck in life, and we have to acknowledge that. I’m blessed. I’ve been very lucky. I’ve also created a lot of my luck. We’ve all dealt with difficult circumstances. I feel like when we start from a default of ‘Oh well, my circumstances were worse and therefore, here’s why I can’t be successful.’ I think that is totally self-defeating.”

People have to have the confidence to believe that they can do it. Right before I succeeded with crypto investing and collecting, I had a vision in my head of being successful at these things and I never ever told myself I can’t do it.” 

Breaking out of a scarcity mindset and knowing challenges are all part of the journey is something DC wants to permeate among society.
“There is no way you can win when you’re in that position. I see this in family members, too, where you see people who just get focused on all the reasons why they can’t succeed. That’s what they think about. They think every day about all the reasons why they can’t win.”
“I think every day about here are the reasons how I can win and why I can win. And yes, I’ll have challenges and impediments, but here’s how I can work through them. I know this sounds kind of sappy, but I think it’s profound.”

Rapid fire Q&A

Your top 3 favorite NFTs you own?
Autoglyph #135 by Larva Labs
CryptoPunk #294 by Larva Labs
Ringers #104 by Dmitri Cherniak 
Autoglyph #135 by Larva Labs – owned by DCinvestor
CryptoPunk #294 by Larva Labs – owned by DCinvestor
Ringers #104 by Dmitri Cherniak – owned by DCinvestor
Are you exploring NFTs on Bitcoin and Solana? 
“Not really. I collect the stuff on Ethereum because: 
1) I believe in Ether as a long-term asset, and I think that is a part of my thought process.
2) Frankly, I have high confidence that Ethereum will continue to exist. 
3) Because of the expressive nature of the Ethereum blockchain, I’m going to be able to use my assets in all kinds of smart contracts natively without additional trust assumptions.
4) Most of what I collected is on-chain generative art so it doesn’t really tap into a value proposition of Ordinals necessarily.
For those reasons, right now, I’m 100% on Ethereum when we talk about NFTs, and I’m okay with that.”

What do you think is an undervalued or underappreciated NFT collection right now?
“There’s a lot of generative art collections that fall into that bucket. Memories of Qilin by Emily Xie I think is a fantastic set; it was so good.
“I like Archetype by Kjetil Golid is another really great set so these are two that I feel don’t get as much attention as they should. 
“I think a lot of DEAFBEEF stuff doesn’t get as much attention as it should, although it gets a decent amount. Mutant Garden Seeder is another one. Even stuff like Mfers, I think deserves more attention. I believe over time, these collections will get better attention.”
Fav 1 of 1 ?
“Justin Aversano Twin Flame is definitely one of my favorite 1 of 1s. 
“Probably the one that’s maybe the most special to me is Loading New Conflict Redux 5, which is an XCOPY. It’s actually a 1 of 1, although there was a series of six images that he did as part of that, but each one is different.
“To me, it was cool that I was able to get that, and it wasn’t cheap. I wanted to have an early XCOPY, as he’s one of the most impactful crypto artists out there, so that one’s up there. The Twin Flame by Justin Aversano is also another one that’s high up there.”

Name another individual with an awesome collection 
“I think Snowfro has one of the best sleeper collections out there. If there’s one person whose collection I really admire and has diamond hands on some of the most incredible pieces out there, Snowfro is definitely up there.”
What is some advice for someone trying to survive crypto in the long run?
“There’s always new narratives and new things to chase but how much are you willing to bet? Like, let’s say your entire net worth is in this chain of the week or month. Is it going to be dominant in 20 years?
“Put yourself in that point of view of what investments are you willing to hold for 10 or 20 years. If you went into a coma tomorrow and you could not touch any of this stuff, and you woke up in 20 years, what would you want to hold?
“Most people underperform just holding Bitcoin or Ether, or a combination thereof. That’s just honestly a fact. I think that people come into this space, and they get lured in by all these traders that they see and they think are super successful. They don’t see that it’s pure survivorship bias.
“There are so many people that I’ve seen over the years, most of whose names I forgot frankly, who have been blown the fuck out, man.
“I think you’ve got to size your bets appropriately. Be conservative, have some assets and more conservative positions. Don’t over-invest, don’t put more into the market than you can afford. If you need to sell anything within a year to survive, you’re overinvested. To be honest, probably more like a few years. That’s kind of my point of view.”