Benji, Beyond the Handle, Inside the Mind of a Digital Art Archivist
November 17, 2025
Benji’s journey into digital art began not with hype, but with quiet curiosity, an avid traditional art collector who stumbled onto Nifty Gateway in 2020 and instantly recognised the power, immersion, and honesty of the medium. Drawn to digital art’s ability to solve the pain points of provenance, authenticity, and gatekeeping, he quickly found himself deeper in the culture than he ever expected. What followed was a steadfast commitment to collecting through every market cycle, co-founding the Doomed DAO during one of the space’s darkest sentiment periods, and building a personal legacy through the Pella Collection, an evolving reflection of his obsessions, philosophies, and belief in digital art as a living conversation between artists and collectors. Beneath the collector handle is someone motivated by preservation, storytelling, and a genuine love for the culture being built in real time.
We sat down with Benji to explore the origins of his collecting journey, the philosophy behind Doomed DAO, and the cultural significance he sees in preserving digital art for generations to come.
Who is Benji beyond the collector handle, what’s your own story, and how did you find your way into digital art and NFTs?
My story is a relatively boring one! I had been collecting traditional art for many years when I first discovered digital art in 2020 by accident when I came across Nifty Gateway. For me it was love at first sight. The immersive nature of digital art appealed to me much more so than a stationary canvas, and I enjoyed the innovation that was happening through the medium. Digital art also solved some of the issues I had with traditional art such as the difficulty proving provenance / authenticity and the high fees paid to intermediaries whenever you buy or sell a physical painting.
First and foremost, I think of myself as a collector of digital art. I never got into the PFP fad back in 2020/2021 because at the time I just could not see the artistic aspects to most of these collections. That has changed now as my collecting experience grew and I could appreciate collections like Punks as digital art, not just a PFP.
Frankly I have never looked back since I started collecting, despite all the negativity that surfaces from time to time - I just keep collecting right through it. In fact, when me and a few other collectors set up the Doomed DAO dedicated to XCOPY back in 2023, sentiment was pretty much at an all time low following the boom and bust of the 2021 hype cycle, yet that never for once tempered our enthusiasm for what we were trying to build - it was simply a passion for all of us to champion the artist and his art.
For those new to it, what exactly is Doomed DAO, and how would you describe its purpose in the NFT art world? How can collectors participate?
The Doomed DAO is an invitation only group of collectors who share a deep passion and interest for collecting the art of XCOPY. Almost all of the top XCOPY collectors are members, however we also have members who may only have one or two works but share the same deep passion for his art.
The DAO is the premier source of knowledge on XCOPY and some of our members have even had the privilege to meet him in person. We regularly trade works between members, it’s a great way to get a first look at acquiring a special XCOPY piece before it gets offered to the broader market.
Through the DAO, our members also co-own one of the best XCOPY collections, containing many of his grail works such as State of Us, Hello Admin and a full set of The Doomed. We are also very active in promoting XCOPY’s works to the world, and we have an upcoming exhibition in December with SuperRare at their New York gallery.
Before founding TDD, my experience with DAOs had been fairly ordinary, with most fizzling out due to a lack of member engagement. I’m proud to say that this has not been the case with TDD, after two years our engagement has never been stronger.
If you are an XCOPY collector and would like to join the DAO, you can reach out to our member Dro who handles membership queries via Twitter and we would be happy to start a conversation!
Dro TDD Member: @P2thedro
The Doomed DAO: @thedoomedxyz
Can you share the origin story of the Pella Collection, what sparked its creation, and how has it grown into what it is today?
The Pella Collection has just naturally evolved over the past 5 years as I have collected various works that resonate deeply with me. These works are a kind of reflection of me in terms of my perspectives, beliefs and the areas of life that interest me. It's also a personal sanctuary for me - when the chaos of the world gets too much at times, I can bury my head for hours and hours in the Pella Collection, it gives me respite when I need it most!
As a collector, I am very curious about the works that I own and I often probe deep into them - I love looking into the metadata, the history, and learning from the artist about why he or she created a particular work and what inspired them to do so. Digital art is very much a conversation between the artist and the audience, and being an active participant in that dialogue is something I really enjoy.
I often get asked about the meaning of the name Pella. It’s actually the ancient birthplace of Alexander the Great, and I thought it was a fitting name for the great collection of digital art that I hope to build!
The Pella Collection just logged its 60th XCOPY work with Death Wannabe, a 2018 piece from the now-defunct R.A.R.E. Art Labs that only had a handful of editions rescued. What does “rescue collecting” mean in your practice, and how do you weigh cultural preservation against price/action when pursuing orphaned early-era works?
Great question. I have plenty to say about this topic, which is not well understood by most collectors.
For me, rescue collecting is the salvaging of works from defunct platforms, bringing these “lost” works back to life by enabling them to be displayed and enjoyed by collectors once more, just like the artist always intended, and preserved for eternity on the blockchain.
As most know, XCOPY was extremely early to NFTs and he experimented with minting on many nascent platforms when he commenced his journey in 2017. Not surprisingly, many of those platforms are no longer around and sadly some of these early works were lost forever when the platform disappeared.
The most notable of these is “Jesus Mob” which was minted in 2017 on a platform called Ascribe. The early token format used in those days was not transferable and all of the metadata was lost when Ascribe shut down. In a chad move, XCOPY gifted in 2018 a series of 1/1 works on SuperRare, the well known Loading New Conflict series, to his Ascribe collectors. One of these works, Loading New Conflict Redux 2, is in the Pella Collection, it’s kind of a rescue piece in my eyes, given its link to the lost Ascribe works.
Fortunately a group of dedicated XCOPY collectors were able to save some of the other early works from the same fate as Jesus Mob.
You mentioned a work in my collection called Death Wannabe that was minted on Rare Art Labs way back in 2018, the story behind this is fascinating.
XCOPY minted a small number of works on Rare Art Labs in early 2018, including Death Wannabe, and the list of collectors who purchased them reads like a who's who of OG crypto artists - Van Arman, Coldie, Shortcut - remember they were the collectors back in those days, there was probably less than 100 people in the entire space! All of the Rare Art Labs works are iconic examples of his early character and abstract styles. In fact a total of 739 works were minted on the platform by OG artists that also include Coldie, Hackatao, Robness and Osinachi to name a few.
Rare Art Labs collapsed after only a few months and many of the works were lost forever after this happened. Take Death Wannabe as an example, it was minted as an edition of 10, yet there are only four in circulation, with the remaining six locked away in the original contract and are considered forever gone.
Because of the early ERC-20 token format used, the works could not be displayed on modern NFT platforms or wallets. Thanks to the hard work of a very dedicated collector called Flo (who owns the magnificent JPeggy collection), an ERC-721 wrapper was constructed as a preservation tool to restore and maintain the original metadata of ERC-20 artworks from the R.A.R.E. Art Labs marketplace.
A fun side note - the “death” character in Death Wannabe is the same character that appears in Last Selfie, one of the most treasured works in all of digital art. Both works were created in the same 2018 period and I think of them as kind of “brother works”. Cozomo de Medici and the Pella Collection are the only two collections to hold both these fraternal works!
There’s also the famous “DOA” series of 3 works comprising Last Human Police 2039, Hackproof 2049, and New Teeth 2033. These powerful character pieces were minted on a platform called Digital Objects Art in 2018 and disappeared a year later when the platform shut down. Somehow a group of collectors working with XCOPY and OpenSea were able to rescue a total of 67 works, and these are now one of the most coveted sets for collectors.
More recently, Async Art sadly joined the scrap heap of failed digital art platforms. This was a tragic loss for XCOPY collectors. His iconic Grifters were minted there, along with his only experiments with dynamic works that allowed the owner to become part of the underlying artwork. The best known of these is Doom Party, which was a 1/1 masterwork combined with 9 “Participants”, who could alter the state of their own work and the underlying masterwork. He also minted on Async two other dynamic collections called The Rabble and Banksta.
Were it not for the technical genius of Rhynotic (of TokenWorks fame), the immersive nature of Doom Party would have been lost forever. After acquiring the 1/1 masterwork, he rebuilt the entire Async platform used for Doom Party, bringing back to life the ability for anyone (for a small gas fee) to change the state of the Participants in the masterwork, ensuring that XCOPY’s vision for Doom Party lives on forever.
I believe over time that Doom Party (and its brethren The Rabble and Banksta) will be recognised as some of the greatest works ever created by XCOPY, which makes these preservation efforts all the more important.
So why does rescue collecting matter? Perhaps for some it’s about the value that can be created in finding these lost treasures, and there’s nothing wrong with that if it incentives them to put in the effort.
For me it’s about ensuring the immutability of XCOPY’s works on the blockchain, such that in the decades and centuries ahead all of his works can be enjoyed by future collectors. It’s also about preserving on the blockchain the history of how XCOPY’s style has developed over time, ensuring that there are no gaps in that historical record. Similar to how palaeontologists strive to put together a complete fossil record, we are doing the same but for digital art!
Doomed DAO has prioritized historically coherent sets, acquiring full XCOPY edition runs and headline works like Mortal Grifter. What’s the curatorial logic behind “completeness,” and how does assembling sets change a work’s scholarly or market significance versus isolated trophy pieces?
There are two curatorial aspects that I think about. Certain editions are grounded deep in history and lore when it comes to XCOPY - The Doomed and DOA are good examples of this - and holding a full set means you have a complete piece of that history.
The other aspect is when it comes to displaying your collection, there is a certain beauty and prestige to being able to display a full set. Visually the works complement each other and usually there are only a small number of full sets possible, which elevates the entire collection.
Taking the Doomed DAO for example, we set out from the very beginning to acquire a full set of all four Doomed editions. The Doomed is one of the most iconic images in the XCOPY universe and was his first ever mint all the way back in 2018 on KnownOrigin. There are four colour variants and they come in editions of 6, 10, 15 and 100. With only six full sets possible, it took us over a year to collect all a full set, and it was a very special moment for our members when we acquired that final piece. Not only do they co-own a piece of history, but they were collectively able to achieve something that is almost impossible for an individual collector.
The Doomed (Mono) 1/1, 2019
Curation aside, collecting sets is also fun and many collectors simply love the challenge that this presents. XCOPY also rewards full set holders via his DECA leaderboard. Certain full sets are rewarded with a “diamond” which moves you up the leaderboard faster, so there’s a competitive aspect to it as well since the higher you rank, the better your chances at getting access to his future drops!
Your public footprint leans into XCOPY’s “Tech Won’t Save Us” ethos, visible in Doomed’s collection slug and your Deca presence. How does that mantra inform your collecting thesis and governance inside Doomed DAO?
The futility of relying on technology to save us from ourselves is a mantra that runs deep within XCOPY’s works, and is something that resonated powerfully with me from the moment I first discovered his art. As technology continually improves, we as a society want to lean into it and this means we hand over more control over our lives to computers and bots in the hope that they will be our saviour. It’s not hard to see where this is going with the advent of self-driving cars, AI and eventually possibly super intelligence and humanoid robots.
These are themes that XCOPY has been commenting on for over a decade or more, if you look back at his early Tumblr posts. “Tech won’t save us” is the tagline for The Doomed, which first appeared on his Tumblr blog all the way back in 2013! Many of his other key works are also reflective of this theme - Last Selfie, $LAVE and Last Human Police are a few of the better known ones.
For the DAO, we felt it made sense for us to adopt this tagline as our formal motto and make it a core part of our collecting thesis, which is visible in many of the works in the DAO collection such as State of Us and Disintegration.
My friend and Doomed DAO co-founder, Maxand98, is a collector and art historian I have a deep respect for, who has produced some remarkably detailed essays on The Doomed and other XCOPY works, exploring this theme in great detail. I encourage your readers to check them out!
Article: XCOPY 'The Doomed' (2018) by @maxand98
In my Pella Collection, this theme is something I have also expressed through XCOPY’s works such as Last Selfie and the DOA set, but also through other artists like Dangiuz, Modest and Beeple, who each have their own unique take on what technology will bring to society.
This theme also encouraged me a few years ago to dive deep into early AI art, where I could explore the early sparks of machine intelligence through visionary artists like Van Arman, David Young, Atay Ilgun, Helena Sarin, Artist Bitcoin, Robbie Barrat and Bard Ionson to name a few.
These artists have documented the rise in machine intelligence through their art, and I became fascinated with cataloguing this evolution from very crude and rudimentary images, to modern day AI art which is virtually indistinguishable from human made art. Some of them are also probing the boundaries of quantum art, that is artworks produced by a quantum computer, a field that is still very much in its infancy.
I recently collected a work from one of my favourite OG artists in the AI art space, David Young, which plays with the concept of quantum superposition - the work remains in a state of quantum superposition, occupying all possible states, until I open a physical box that contains the key to allow me to observe the work, thereby collapsing it into one reality. Whether you open the box or not, either way, you are an active participant in the work’s existence, exemplifying the beauty and power of the digital art medium.
These works form a separate collection of mine dedicated entirely to AI art called ElectricSheepDreams. Forming this collection now would be almost impossible as many of those early works were only minted in tiny numbers and most are vaulted away forever. While still somewhat under the radar for mainstream collectors, I believe in time the historical and cultural significance of the early AI art movement will be well understood. JediWolf and Delronde are two of the most visionary collectors in that space and I encourage everyone to have a look at their incredible collections.
You recently argued that Christie’s shuttering its standalone NFT unit says more about legacy fee models than digital-art demand, pointing to Web3-native venues like Gondi with zero commissions. What marketplace structures best serve serious collectors and artists over the next cycle, and how should DAOs engage (or avoid) institutions?
I believe that we are still in that early experimental phase of various business models being tried and tested for digital art. The traditional art auction houses were always going to have a tough time in my view, despite making a big splash when they first came onto the scene a few years ago. The high commissions they charge to the buyer and the seller were always going to be a problem competing with digital marketplaces like OpenSea, Raster and Gondi let you buy and sell for 1% or even for free. What Christies etc needed to do was lower their digital commissions to match, but they could not do this without cannibalizing the huge commissions they earn from traditional art sales. I always found it ridiculous that buyers were being asked to pay the same commission on digital art as for traditional art, yet there was no physical item that needed to be stored, protected, insured and transported to a buyer.
For me, the solutions that work best are marketplaces like Raster and Gondi, that allow buyers and sellers to transact cost effectively and with cross-chain visibility so that they can see the entire body of works of a particular artist. These feel very much like marketplaces built for collectors, and not targeted mainly at NFT traders or speculators. What I would like to see is greater enforcement of artist royalties. While I am sure that many speculators and traders hate the idea of having 5-10% of each sale paid to the artist, but as a collector I consider this to be very important for the longevity of the entire ecosystem - it allows artists to make a lifelong career in digital art and encourages more artists to join the space, which also brings in more collectors over time too. It's very much a virtuous circle.
Looking ahead, where do you see the future of Doomed DAO and The Pella Collection, what’s next for you as a collector and for the culture you’re helping to shape?
We are in an interesting phase right now of what feels to be extreme disappointment at the fact that NFT prices have corrected recently or that we have not had a 2021 style blow off top. When I look across the market at the moment, it is the large PFP collections that are bearing the brunt of traders and speculators looking for exit liquidity, but this has a flow on effect in terms of sentiment across the entire digital art space.
For me much of this is noise, and I do not believe it reflects a lack of demand - there is always a bid for digital art, it's just that the bid-offer spread tends to widen during some periods and contracts in others. In over 5 years of collecting, I have never seen the community of digital art collectors this engaged and this strong. Hundreds of people from around the world came to New York purely for Alpha Centauri Kid's Grand Skull Piano exhibition, Marfa - which is in the middle of nowhere for most of us - was packed, and Art Basel is championing digital art. When I look beneath the surface, I like what I see.
The Doomed DAO is continuing to grow from strength to strength, and has an XCOPY exhibition in partnership with SuperRare coming up in December at their gallery in downtown New York that will showcase many of the best works owned by the DAO. What I have come to realize is that a DAO is only as good as the sum total of its members, and we are very fortunate at the Doomed DAO to have so many engaged members willing to commit their time, energy and skills to fostering its mission. It is my firm belief that we will still be thriving in 25 years time and that history will ultimately look back at the Doomed DAO as one of the greatest champions of the digital art movement, having elevated the entire space through the works of XCOPY.
As for me, I am still adding art to the Pella Collection, and I am also working on a few things in the background such as a dedicated website to showcase and explain what the artworks say to me. Every time I think I have finally completed a goal of building out a specific theme or that I have collected all of the works of a particular artist that appeal to me, I tend to discover a new work or find a hidden meaning that I did not previously appreciate, and that leads me down a new collecting path. As someone who spends a significant amount of time researching digital art and participating in conversations with collectors and artists, I find that I am constantly having 'lightbulb' moments - its at these instances that a new collecting theme takes off in my head or when I am inspired to deep dive into the body of works of an artist I have not collected before.
This is the pleasure and pain of being an inveterate collector of digital art - your collection is forever a work in progress, but the truth is that you would not want it any other way!
As the broader NFT market wrestles with narratives, volatility and shifting expectations, Benji remains resolutely focused on the long game. His vision for both Doomed DAO and the Pella Collection is one of endurance and stewardship, preserving XCOPY’s historical footprint, championing digital art’s most innovative creators, and ensuring today’s works are still understood and celebrated decades from now. With new exhibitions, ongoing preservation efforts, and an ever-expanding set of collecting interests, Benji continues to evolve alongside the medium itself. For him, collecting is an endless pursuit of meaning, discovery and dialogue, and this interview makes one thing clear, Benji is not just observing digital art history, he is actively helping to write it.
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