Ex-Moonbirds COO Ryan Carson's NFT fund sees $40 million in commitments

The 1.21 Gigawatts Fund (121G), which was launched last week by serial entrepreneur Ryan Carson to buy non-fungible tokens (NFTs), said it has received commitments worth $40 million from investors.

121G’s website was launched on April 25 and interested investors had to commit 100 ETH ($280,000) to participate in the fund. There were 99 available spots for accredited investors. Carson, the former COO of the popular NFT projects Moonbirds and Proof Collective, tweeted on Tuesday that the fund has seen over 14,000 ETH in commitments and that it will start buying NFTs in July.

The 121G fund, whose name is a reference to the movie Back to the Future, is focused on acquiring and holding “historically significant blue-chip NFTs,” Carson said on Twitter last month. “We will focus on collecting a broad range of important NFTs across the following categories: generative art, photographs, token-gated communities, metaverses, PFPs [profile pictures], 1/1s and more,” he added.

The fund has a longer-term view on NFTs, holding acquired pieces for 3-10 years, according to Carson. Like many alternative investment funds, it charges a 2% management fee and a 20% fee on profits.

Carson said the majority of the 121G fund will be used to acquire “a strategic ratio of blue-chip floor and rare NFTs” and the remainder will be invested in “up-and-coming promising projects.”

Carson left Moonbirds and Proof after launching 121G. Proof is the media startup behind Moonbirds and Proof Collective, two popular NFT collections. They both are in the top 15 collections in terms of floor price.

The current floor price of Moonbirds, which was launched on April 16, is around 29 ETH and Proof Collective’s floor price is over 100 ETH, according to OpenSea.

The 121G fund aims to acquire such popular NFTs “before large institutional investors enter the market,” according to its website.