'Vincent Van Dough' launches new NFT gallery: Exclusive

A prolific NFT collector who goes by the pseudonym "Vincent Van Dough (VVD)" has launched a new NFT gallery called Art of This Millennium.

AOTM is opening today with 32 artists featured including AlphaCentauriKid, Cath Simard, Claire Silver, Dmitri Cherniak, Deekay, Grant Yun, Isaac Wright (DrifterShoots), Other World and Sam Spratt, VVD told The Block in a statement. 

VVD's new project comes shortly after they had to bid adieu to their NFT fund Starry Night Capital, which had been launched last year with Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, founders of the now-bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

Starry Night Capital had aimed to raise $100 million and collected hundreds of NFTs, but it had to move all assets to 3AC liquidator Teneo in October. 

VVD was once friends with Zhu and Davies, having known them outside of crypto for over ten years. When asked if they are still in touch with the 3AC founders, VVD said they last had contact with them before 3AC's collapse was reported in June. VVD added that Zhu and Davies are "not at all" involved with AOTM.

AOTM was set up earlier this month, VVD said, adding that it was bootstrapped, meaning it hasn't raised external funds. As an NFT gallery, AOTM will offer services such as curation, marketing, promotion, sales, and organizing exhibitions. AOTM's business model is commission-based, said VVD, adding that the startup will take a 15% cut of any sales it helps facilitate, similar to SuperRare.

There are currently six people working for AOTM, and VVD plans to hire more people over the coming months. 

VVD has been in the crypto space since 2013, they told The Block last year in an interview. Their involvement with NFTs was as one of the original CryptoPunks claimers and one of the first CryptoKitties participants. At the time, they owned over 2,000 NFTs and spent a little bit over $20 million on these pieces.

Today, that number has grown to around 6,000 NFTs, they said.