Two monoliths of the NFT ecosystem – CryptoPunks ($PUNKS.NFT) and the Bored Ape Yacht Club ($BAYC.NFT) – will now be owned and operated by the same company.
Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, has acquired the CryptoPunks and Meebits from developer Larva Labs. While the merger is historically significant, it will create a small “cultural monopoly” in Yuga Labs, which will now own two of the world’s largest, and most important, NFT collections.
Yuga Labs and Larva Labs jointly announced their partnership via Twitter on Friday evening.
“We now own the brands, copyright in the art and other IP rights for both collections, along with 423 CryptoPunks and 1711 Meebits,” said Yuga Labs.
Larva Labs clarified that it would retain rights to its other big NFT collection, Autoglyphs.
CryptoPunks ($PUNKS.NFT) is arguably the collection that started it all – though they weren’t explicitly called NFTs, they became the basis for digital collectables on the blockchain when launched in 2017. The 10,000 randomly-generated 24×24 8-bit pixel art were given away for free – but now sell for thousands. In 2021, during a period of rapid growth for the zeitgeisty NFT space, an ultra-rare alien punk was sold for 4,200 ETH ($7.58 million). The unique collection also received support from giant companies like Visa, which bought CryptoPunk #7610 for $150,000 in August 2021.
Despite remarkable sales records, CryptoPunks failed to resolve some owners’ issues and was harshly criticized by the community. For instance, it sold old “V1” NFTs from a scrapped smart contract and later apologized that the collection wasn’t part of the CryptoPunks. Also, NFT owners complained that Larva Labs was not paying enough attention to the project and offered no perks.
While all of this was happening, Bored Ape Yacht Club ($BAYC.NFT) became the top NFT collection of unique avatars. Released by Yuga Labs in April 2021, the collection of 10,000 lazy-looking apes stands out because here buyers purchase NFTs and gain membership at an “online club” with a growing number of benefits and offerings. Bored Ape holders have also received two free NFTs, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club and the Bored Ape Kennel Club. Moreover, Yuga Labs is also developing a play-to-earn game based on the Bored Apes and plans to launch an Ethereum token soon as well.
Larva Labs acknowledged in its recent blog post that the growing demands placed on modern-day generative NFT projects were outside their abilities and aims.
“Our personalities and skill sets aren’t well suited to community management, public relations, and the day-to-day management that these kinds of projects require and deserve,” according to the post.
Larva Labs has definitely benefited from this decision, as once the news spread that they would be selling the project to Yuga Labs, CryptoPunks sales soared over 1,200%, according to CryptoSlam.
Out of the gate, Yuga Labs turned over the IP of the Punks to their users. However, it has not yet detailed what perks and benefits NFT holders will receive in the future.