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PleasrDAO
PleasrDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that purchases and collects what they consider to be "timeless and priceless mementos of digital and crypto culture".[1] Each member of the DAO holds a token that represents a fraction of the group's treasury and an equal say in group decision-making.[2][3][4]
On June 9, 2021, PleasrDAO purchased an NFT tied to an image of the Doge (meme) for over $4 million in an auction that took place on Zora (NFT Marketplace).[2][5]
Overview
PleasrDAO is a collective that acquires and preserves culturally significant digital assets and internet-culture artifacts, while experimenting with collective ownership and public access.[17] A 2025 federal court record identifies it as a Cayman Islands exempted foundation company.[18]
PPLPLEASR x Uniswap V3 NFT
PleasrDAO was initially organized on Twitter in March 2021 in order to purchase Pplpleasr's genesis Non-Fungible Token (NFT). The animation, titled x*y=k, was created to celebrate the Uniswap V3 launch, and all proceeds from the auction aimed to benefit Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, among other minority groups. PleasrDAO’s 110 ETH offer started a bidding war causing the NFT to almost triple in price in less than an hour before the winning bid of 310 ETH. The final 15 minutes of bidding alone brought the price up over $100,000.[6] PleasrDAO purchased the NFT for 310 ETH (~$525,000 at the time).[7][8]
After the first purchase, PleasrDAO deployed a token and distributed $PEEPS pro-rata to those who contributed.[9]
Edward Snowden NFT
The next NFT collected by PleasrDAO was Edward Snowden's Stay Free NFT on April 16, 2021, for 2,224 ETH (~$5.5 million). The proceeds went to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, where Snowden serves as president.[7][10] After Stay Free, PleasrDAO distributed $PEEPS to new members.[9] Initially, PleasrDAO did not have enough to win, but a loan of $2.5 million was sent to their multisig wallet from an anonymous DeFi legend with only 4 minutes left on the auction.[11]
In May 2021, PleasrDAO purchased Itzel Yard's "Dreaming at Dusk" for 500 ETH (~$1.1 million) in an auction held by The Tor Project.[12]
Another PleasrDAO's purchased pieces include "Apes Together Strong", "ETH bruh", "すごい!!!", "数人が理解" by Pplpleasr, "Dank Elon" by MCE, "All Aboard - Card" and "Safe Keeping" by bluekirbyfi, "Andre Cronje Common" by posternutbag, and "Coordinating x*y=k" by Bankless.[11]
Doge Meme NFT
On June 9, 2021, PleasrDAO purchased an NFT tied to an image of the Doge (meme) for 1,696.9 ETH (over $4 million) in an auction that took place on Zora (NFT Marketplace).[2][5] The PleasrDAO's bid made Doge NFT the most expensive meme NFT of all time.[13] The meme was first put up for auction on June 8, 2021, by Atsuko Sato, the owner of Kabosu, the dog from the Doge meme image, and ran for roughly three days before being sold to PleasrDAO. A bidding war for the meme broke out on Zora, where Doge was being auctioned, between users twodollahotdoge and pleasrdao on June 11, driving up the price until PleasrDAO prevailed with the winning bid.[13][14][15]
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Doge will go towards the following charity organizations: Plan, Terra Renaissance, Florence, Japanese Red Cross, World Food Programme, Ashinaga, and Japan Heart.[13][15]
PleasrDAO fractionalized the Doge NFT into $DOG and transferred stewardship of the token and community ecosystem to Own The Doge.[17][19] Own The Doge’s community governance and licensing work has made the handover a continuing stewardship project.[19] In a September 17, 2024, governance discussion, a community lead described the transition as “Doge independence” and discussed revised $DOG treasury allocations, redistribution, liquidity, and funding.[20]
History
2023 Social-Account Compromise
On July 19, 2023, PleasrDAO’s X/Twitter account and an executive’s account were compromised and used to promote fraudulent links. PleasrDAO’s operations lead estimated that people who interacted with the links lost more than $1.2 million (about 654 ETH); this was a reported loss to users, not a loss from the DAO treasury.[21]
Wu-Tang Clan Album: Access and Litigation
PleasrDAO bought the physical Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and the exclusive right to play its tracks for approximately $4 million in July 2021. In January 2024, it bought the copyrights and exclusive exploitation rights for approximately $750,000.[18]
In June 2024, PleasrDAO offered encrypted NFT access to the album for $1 on Base. The initial release offered access to a sampler and progressive releases from 16 of the album’s 31 tracks, for which PleasrDAO said it had secured rights. Under the announced mechanism, each sale advanced the album’s stated public-release date of October 8, 2103, by 88 seconds.[22] The album was presented in listening sessions at Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art from June 15 to June 24, 2024; all available free tickets were taken.[23]
After Martin Shkreli publicly claimed that he retained and shared copies of the album, PleasrDAO sued him in June 2024. The court issued a temporary restraining order in June and a preliminary injunction on August 26, 2024, barring Shkreli from possessing, using, disseminating, or selling interests in the album and requiring him to turn over materials and provide an accounting.[24] In January 2025, the court denied PleasrDAO’s contempt motion, and in February 2025 it said Shkreli had complied with the injunction.[24]
On September 25, 2025, the court dismissed PleasrDAO’s forfeiture-order enforcement claim for lack of standing and dismissed its tortious-interference and unjust-enrichment claims as preempted by copyright law, while allowing federal and state trade-secret misappropriation claims and its replevin claim to proceed.[18][25] This was a motion-to-dismiss ruling; whether the album qualified as a trade secret remained a question of fact.[18]
In February 2026, Shkreli asserted counterclaims concerning the album’s trade-secret status and copyright interests, and sought to bring Wu-Tang producers Robert Diggs (RZA) and Tarik Azzougarh (Cilvaringz) into the dispute.[26] The court removed the producers as counterclaim defendants and denied Shkreli’s motion for mandatory joinder in January 2026; Shkreli subsequently filed a separate third-party complaint.[27] PleasrDAO moved to dismiss the counterclaims and third-party complaint. By June 16, 2026, the dismissal motions had been briefed, and the judge had denied Shkreli leave to file a sur-reply.[27]
Early Participants
Leighton Cusack initiated PleasrDAO in March 2021. Other early contributors and participants included Alex Svanevik, CEO of crypto data platform Nansen, Calvin Liu of Compound, Tarun Chitra of Gauntlet Network, and Andrew Kang of Mechanism Capital.[16]
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