Institutional NFT Interest Heats Up as Three Arrows Capital Launches ‘Starry Night’ Fund

After weeks of making waves in the non-fungible token (NFT) community with high-profile buys, Zhu Su’s crypto venture capital (VC) firm, Three Arrows Capital, is formalizing its entry into the space with the launch of an NFT-dedicated fund, Starry Night Capital.

In a tweet today, pseudonymous NFT collector Vincent Van Dough announced the fund, saying that in addition to investing in art and collectibles, the fund would launch an “NFT education portal,” promote emerging artists and launch a physical NFT gallery space in a “major city” before the end of the year.

Leading up to the announcement, Three Arrows’ NFT wallets had been closely watched by NFT aficionados as the investment firm hoovered assets from historic and popular NFT collections such as CryptoPunks and Ringers.

The firm made waves last Friday with the purchase of “The Golden Goose,” a procedurally generated piece from artist Dmitri Cherniak, for 1,800 ETH, or just under $6 million.

Three Arrows isn’t the only crypto VC entering the NFT space. Research, investment and consulting firm Delphi Digital announced the launch of InfiNFT in May in collaboration with pseudonymous collector Gmoney. In 2020, Delphi also took a position in NFTs via the purchase of rare “mystic” Axie Infinity NFTs.

Additionally, shortly after the launching of Starry Night, data from on-chain analytics firm Nansen showed an address associated with Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research trading firm acquired a trio of Art Blocks Curated NFTs, including a Ringer, a Fidenza and a Subscape for a combined 614 ETH, or over $2 million.

In a written interview with CoinDesk, Derek Edws, a member of the NFT-focused investment DAO Flamingo, said the Starry Night announcement is a sign of the growing acceptance of NFTs as an asset class.

“Legacy institutions like Christie’s and Sotheby’s, along with a growing number of the largest capital allocators in the world, are entering the digital art and collectibles space at an intense speed,” said Edws, adding:

“There is a clear and rising recognition that some of the most valuable cultural assets in the future will be blockchain-based, and will have originated on some of today’s leading NFT platforms like Art Blocks, SuperRare and Async Art.”

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Andrew Thurman

Andrew Thurman was a tech reporter at CoinDesk with a focus on DeFi.

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