Bored Ape Yacht Club Buys Over CryptoPunks To Fix Rival’s Shortcomings
Photo 233637508 © Rokas Tenys | Dreamstime.com
Primates and humans are merging in the evolution of the non-fungible token world. Yuga Labs, the owner of the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), now has the most-acclaimed NFT collections to its name—having purchased direct competitor Larva Labs, the creator of CryptoPunks and Meebits, last Friday.
Yuga Labs is now the proud parent of the brands with full commercialization rights of CryptoPunks and Meebits, in addition to holding 423 CryptoPunk and 1,711 Meebit tokens, the startup confirms.
With this deal, Yuga intends to address the complaints CryptoPunk holders have been making about its creators, including their resistance to engage with their audience, an incapacity to make collectors feel special, and heavy-handed restrictions over how the NFTs are being used.
With BAYC and CryptoPunks standing as the most iconic NFT projects, cryptocurrency holders are naturally comparing the two and how their leaderships are handling the collections. Between the rivals, you’re more likely to come across Bored Apes in a spectrum of collaborations, such as with Adidas and AriZona Iced Tea. There’s even an animated comedy series that’s essentially a long-winded elevator pitch to sell NFTs.
Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. Photo 242963540 © Nils Ackermann | Dreamstime.com
After purchasing a Bored Ape, holders obtain commercial rights to its image and can use it to work on merchandise and other business projects. Casetify, for instance, bought BAYC #3583 for 83.4 ETH (US$214,365 as of the time of writing), and turned it into a “phygital” phone case.
CryptoPunks are the comparably shy distant cousins, and their overprotective biological parents are partly to blame for that. Larva Labs has often been dissed for frequently taking litigious action on derivative projects, according to Decrypt, and users have been fed up with how little control they have over their CryptoPunks as compared with BAYCs.
BAYC also knows how to treat its clients well. Launched in August 2021, the collection is marketed as an exclusive club that rewards members with free NFTs, merchandise, and access to high-flying events. The CryptoPunks creator, on the other hand, rarely interacts with collectors.
As the new owner of CryptoPunks, Yuga Labs is dismissing Larva Labs’ DMCA takedowns and will presumably be more welcoming of derivative works. Meanwhile, Larva Labs will continue working on new projects.
The former CryptoPunks owner, which launched the collection in 2017, recognizes that its model isn’t compatible with the exploding NFT industry and believes its rival is perfect for the job.
“Our personalities and skillsets aren’t well suited to community management, public relations, and the day-to-day management that these kinds of projects require and deserve,” says Larva Labs in its announcement.
“We found many things in common, but we also saw in [Yuga] the skill set and expertise in this space that we were missing. In many ways, Yuga is the innovator of the model for the modern [profile picture] project, and are the best people in the world at operating and growing these projects and communities around them.”
