PleasrDAO Buys Once Upon a Time in Shaolin

2021

Date: October 27, 2021 · Place: US Marshals private sale, transferred to PleasrDAO multisig · Figures: PleasrDAO collective · Wu-Tang Clan, recording artists · Martin Shkreli, prior owner (forfeited as part of fraud sentence) · Cilvaringz, producer · Tags: DAO, Wu-Tang, Forfeiture, Collectible 01. Government Sale to Internet Strangers PleasrDAO, a collective formed in early 2021 to collect culturally significant NFTs, buys Wu-Tang Clan's one-of-one album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin from the US Marshals Service for $4 million. The album had been forfeited by Martin Shkreli as part of his securities fraud sentence. PleasrDAO fractionalizes ownership via 88,888 $PLEASR tokens on Ethereum. The album itself stays a physical object, sealed, with a 88-year listening restriction baked into the original 2015 contract. The DAO holds the artifact; token holders hold the right to its eventual cultural release. 02. Replication of the Unreplicable The purchase is the high-water mark of the DAO-as-collector thesis. ConstitutionDAO follows three weeks later. PleasrDAO had already bought Edward Snowden's Stay Free NFT for 2,224 ETH in April 2021 and the original Doge image NFT for 1,696.9 ETH in June 2021. The Wu-Tang buy is the meme that proves the model. A leaderless internet group can outbid private collectors at a federal forfeiture auction for the most deliberately scarce album in music history. Sources • US Department of Justice press release, October 20 2021 • Jack Schickler, 'PleasrDAO Acquires Wu-Tang Album,' CoinDesk, October 27 2021 • Cyrus Farivar, 'PleasrDAO Buys Wu-Tang Album,' Forbes, October 27 2021