Whaleshark, mysterious collector of 400,000 NFTs, sees Hong Kong as a hub for the digital token that is gaining fans

WhaleShark, one of the most mysterious and active non-fungible token (NFT) collectors in the world with a portfolio of more than 400,000 items, sees Hong Kong as a hub for the blockchain-enabled digital asset when it comes to both money and art.

In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, WhaleShark, a British-born Chinese man who uses the pseudonym to maintain anonymity, said Hong Kong “is going to become a hub for NFTs, not only given their financial use case, but also for digital art as a whole” and that the future application of NFTs will go beyond portraits.

NFTs refer to units of data stored on a blockchain, which guarantees each digital asset to be unique and immutable. As such, NFTs can be owned and traded much like physical items in the real world.

WhaleShark spent most of his career in the brand consulting industry. He bought his first NFT in 2019 and said he was prepared to hold it for up to two decades until the world had woken up to their potential – the ability to bake in proof of uniqueness and authenticity.

Early NFT projects back then, such as the game Cryptokitties, were largely seen as a passing fad among the cryptocurrency community.

But everything changed last year, with NFTs grabbing headlines and exploding into the mainstream. NFT artworks by American artist Beeple sold for tens of millions of dollars, and people moved to snap up sought-after pixelated avatars and cartoon apes to use as profile pictures.

“It was literally like going to sleep one day investing in a very niche area of blockchain when everybody was talking about cryptocurrencies, and all of a sudden waking up, and seeing everyone talking about these digital assets,” 39-year-old WhaleShark told the Post. “Going on Clubhouse in early 2021, it was a 24-hour NFT party.”

Clubhouse is an audio-based social media app where users can communicate in audio chat rooms, and which became popular with NFT aficionados.

“In 2021, the NFT boom came faster and harder than anybody could have imagined,” he said, attributing it to factors including the increased adoption of cryptocurrencies, people spending more time online during the pandemic, savvy investors looking for more opportunities as a hedge against inflation, and the growing popularity of physical trading cards.

WhaleShark, who is based in Hong Kong, is now sitting on a treasure chest. A digital inventory consisting of some of his most valuable NFTs, which he named the Vault, was valued at US$131 million in December, according to a monthly audit report produced by market tracker Nonfungible.com.

Blockchain entrepreneur Vignesh Sundaresan, also known by his pseudonym MetaKovan, is seen with the NFT he bought, Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days”, in his home in Singapore. Photo: AFP

The collector said he started investing in blockchain in 2012, using half of his pay cheque every month to buy bitcoins.

In 2015, when he was an entrepreneur in the artificial intelligence space, he decided to sell all his bitcoins and go all in on ethereum [a rival digital currency], a move that he described as “utterly and completely nerve-wrecking” at the time.

Ether gained in value though, and WhaleShark started to look for the next use case of blockchain.

His first NFT purchase in 2019 was from Gods Unchained, a digital trading cards game that lets players actually own their game assets, including cards and other items, by minting them to the ethereum network.

He said he then realised that NFTs could resolve some common issues with collectibles in the physical world, including degeneration over time.

The fact that people were spending much more time online and the need for secure ownership of digital items also convinced him that NFTs were the way forward.

“It makes total sense to me that ultimately one’s digital belongings might be equal to their physical belongings, simply because we’re moving into this digital world and digital lifestyle,” he said, adding that he did not see any other up-and-coming technology that could give people the same true ownership and management of digital assets as NFTs could.

“Deconstructed Troll”, an artwork by the digital artist Beeple. Photo: Instagram / @beeple_crap

Whaleshark said he is hugely selective when it comes to the NFTs he invests in. His current collection of some 400,000 NFTs is spread across about 30 projects, he said, including digital art, digital real estate, collectibles like NBA top shot and digital photography, and does not include profile picture (PFP) projects.

He also said he rarely sells his NFTs, as opposed to many players in the space who buy NFTs for only a short holding period before exiting the projects to avoid losing money.

“When you look at the NFT market today, a lot of participants come from crypto trading, and they bring the similar mentality,” he said, “That’s an investment style I’ve never been comfortable with.”

Having moved to Hong Kong about two years ago, WhaleShark said the city has been “a wonderful place to watch the growth of NFTs and cryptocurrencies in general”.

“When you look at Asia as a whole, I would say Hong Kong probably has the most robust crypto community I’ve seen,” he said.

“The NFT side is also extremely interesting, where you see all these PFP projects propping up, and the digital art scene is absolutely flourishing.”

In October, Sotheby’s auctioned an NFT of never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes footage from the first day of shooting of In the Mood for Love, the critically acclaimed 2000 film by director Wong Kar-wai, which sold for HK$4.28 million (US$549,000).

In September, an online auction by Christie’s of 14 NFT artworks and other assets owned by Hong Kong actor Shawn Yue Man-lok fetched HK$121.6 million.

WhaleShark added that prominent blockchain companies like Animoca Brands, which came out of Hong Kong, “bode very well” for the city, and that he is also seeing a growing number of NFT start-ups joining a co-working space he uses as an office.

“Anecdotally, I was talking to the receptionist, and she asked if I know what an NFT is, and told me we have three new tenants who are doing NFTs,” he said. Local PFP projects such as Degenerate Ape Academy and Delirious Mind Travelers have taken up some of the city’s prime ad spots.

And Monkey Kingdom, founded by entrepreneurs in Hong Kong and promoted by celebrities such as JJ Lin and Steve Aoki, has also become hugely popular within Hong Kong’s financial circles.

WhaleShark said in future he expects NFTs to also be used to represent the provenance or authenticity of physical items, such as vintage Louis Vuitton bags, and proof of certification such as a university diploma, and for ticketing.

He is also exploring the interoperability of NFTs, such as having one digital wearable that people can use across multiple virtual worlds including The Sandbox, Cryptovoxels and Decentraland.

“Granted there will be lots of conversations around how we can create the next Cryptopunk,” he said, referring to a pixelated avatar project, one of the most expensive in the world. “But there will be other sophisticated conversations happening as well.”