Bored Ape creators Yuga Labs to launch Bitcoin NFTs
After dominating the market for NFTs on Ethereum, Yuga Labs is taking on the Bitcoin blockchain.
The $4 billion company plans to launch a new collection of Bitcoin NFTs called TwelveFold, based on a 12×12 grid, which the company calls “a visual allegory for the mapping of data on the planet.” Bitcoin blockchain” describes.
Unlike previous launches, including the Web3 game Dookey Dash and its Otherside metaverse, TwelveFold will have no utility or connection to the company’s notable Ethereum-based projects such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
According to Greg Solano, co-founder of Yuga Labs, the collection was designed by Michael Figge, Yuga’s Chief Content Officer, who launched the digital storefront-based NFT project 10KTF before joining the company in November , in which users can create unique NFTs with their avatar on various Metaverse-enabled digital wearables.
The Artist is the person behind BAYC’s OG 3D studio and his name rhymes with Shmigge
— Garga.eth (Greg Solano) (@CryptoGarga) February 28, 2023
Although Yuga said the collection of 300 NFTs would be auctioned off later this week, it didn’t give an exact time. The company said there would be a 24 hour notification with auction details and exact timing via social media.
Although all of Yuga Labs’ previous NFT collections have been on Ethereum, the most popular blockchain for NFTs, TwelveFold’s announcement follows a surge in interest in Bitcoin NFTs, which helped push Bitcoin’s price briefly to over earlier this month drifting $25,000.
Using a new protocol called Ordinal Theory, NFT developers are “writing” non-fungible tokens into the smallest unit of bitcoin, called satoshi, which is one-hundred-millionth of a bitcoin. While NFTs on Ethereum and Solana mostly point to off-chain databases containing the main image of an NFT, Bitcoin NFTs, or ordinals, use recent updates to the Bitcoin code to store art on the blockchain itself.
Ordinals have fueled excitement in the NFT industry for the past month, even as the crypto winter lingers. According to data from Dune Analytics, more than 213,000 ordinals have already been inscribed onto the Bitcoin blockchain as the technology continues to attract big players in the NFT space like DeGods.
Courtesy of Yuga Labs
Yuga enters the Bitcoin NFT space as it faces a threat to its business from the ongoing battle between major NFT marketplaces over creator royalties. Earlier this month, market leader OpenSea transitioned to an optional creator earnings policy in response to a challenge from burgeoning NFT marketplace Blur.
This could hurt NFT developers like Yuga, who earn millions in royalties from second-hand sales.
The upcoming TwelveFold sale is likely to raise a sizable sum for Yuga’s brand name alone, but some have said they see the project as nothing more than a revenue boost for the company.
No benefit. no community. Will be sold to the highest bidder. I couldn’t have had more than a month to plan, think, design and execute. It’s basically missing everything the NFT community is asking of any other project. Nothing calls for cash louder to me than that. pic.twitter.com/WbnEO4Jpyc
— rosalia.eth | gol.eth | APIs.eth | ropa.eth (@miq_eth) February 28, 2023
Usual yuga milking the system but the amount of eyes they will bring? Indispensable.
Overall good move.— P1ckle.eth (@P1ckle__) February 27, 2023
Others have said the move could be particularly risky for Yuga as it depends on and cares about its reputation, as evidenced by the ongoing lawsuit against Ryder Ripps.
In a blog post published Monday, Solano explained Yuga’s thinking about the Ordinals project: “All of these decisions deviate from what is expected of Yuga. But you know. Damn it, doing expected things.”
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