NFT Project Seeks Funding to Buy Cold War-Era Nuclear Bunker

Dead Bruv — the team behind the narrative-driven NFT project Meatbags — intends to mint 100,000 NFTs, with 10,000 set to be airdropped to existing Meatbags holders. The remaining NFTs will go on sale starting April 21, priced at $14 each, according to a post on the Meatbags X (formerly Twitter) account.

NFT holders will gain access to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called the Billionaire Bunker Club — described as “a fully decentralized, community-governed real-world asset on-chain.” Members of the DAO will collectively vote on what to do with the bunker if the purchase is successful.

Some eccentric ideas proposed for the bunker’s future include: a members-only survival resort with a Doomsday DJ, a venue for end-of-the-world festivals, or even a luxury Airbnb offering caviar tastings and canned food room service.

The bunker is currently listed on UK online auction platform SDL Property Auctions for a guide price of £650,000 (about $862,000), with the auction scheduled for April 24.

According to SDL, the bunker sits on 1.4 acres near a disused reservoir and comes with planning permissions that allow the winning bidder to convert it into a residential home. The structure was originally built in 1960 to serve as a monitoring post during the Cold War and was decommissioned in 1968. It was one of around 1,500 stations tasked with detecting nuclear detonations and monitoring radioactive fallout.

Started as a joke

Robert, the pseudonymous co-founder of Dead Bruv, shared in an April 18 X post that the initiative began as a joke — but quickly turned into a “lightbulb moment.”

“There’s really nothing quite like this, but it’s exactly the kind of weird and wild creativity that made me fall in love with NFTs in the first place. Taking risks. Thinking outside the box. Pushing the limits of what this tech can do to create something completely new, absurd, and amazing,” he said.

“When something feels completely insane, and you still say ‘we’ve got to do it’ — that’s when you know it’s worth chasing,” he added.

This isn’t the first time a DAO has turned to crowdfunding to acquire a high-value asset. In 2021, ConstitutionDAO raised around $47 million worth of Ether to bid on an original copy of the U.S. Constitution, which was being auctioned at Sotheby’s. Despite their efforts, they lost the bid — Sotheby’s capped them at $43 million to account for taxes and other expenses.

Meanwhile, LinksDAO successfully acquired the Spey Bay Golf Club in Scotland in May 2023, and announced the addition of the U.S.-based Hillcrest Country Club to its portfolio in February.