Original｜Odaily

Author｜Azuma

In the early morning of February 17th, Beijing time,Yuga Labs, the development team of “Boring Ape” (BAYC), officially announced that it has completed the acquisition of Moonbirds development company PROOF (Yuga Labs co-founder Garga.eth revealed that this is an “all-equity transaction”), the acquisition includes the PROOF team, intellectual property, art group PROOF Collective, Moonbirds, Mythics, Moonbirds Oddities and Grails exhibition series.

On the afternoon of the same day, “Pudgy Penguins” officially completed its price surpassing BAYC’s floor price.Blur data shows that as of the time of publication, the floor price of BAYC was tentatively reported at 22.15 ETH, and the floor price of Pudgy Penguins was tentatively reported at 22.54 ETH.

Putting aside the OG project CryptoPunks, which is now also owned by Yuga Labs,This is also the first time in history that BAYC, which has long dominated the throne of PFP NFTs, has been overtaken by other projects.

With a clearer IP construction strategy, Pudgy Penguins has maintained a strong upward trend in the past few months, and has achieved several times of cumulative growth. In the opinion of many investors who are paying attention to NFT market dynamics,Pudgy Penguins completing the flip of BAYC is actually not an unpredictable event, but this historic and commemorative moment occurred on the day of Yuga Labs’ high-profile acquisition of PROOF, which has to be said to be a rather embarrassing coincidence.

• Odaily Note: For the Pudgy Penguins growth story, seeOdaily Exclusive Interview with Pudgy Penguins CEO: The fat penguin is an image that everyone will love；Homecoming: How Pudgy Penguins went from losing hope to becoming the best-selling product on Amazon? 》。

After Yuga Labs officially announced the completion of its acquisition of PROOF, there was a clear split in the communitys attitude toward the transaction. Although some community members believed that the acquisition of NFTs such as Moonbirds with CC0 properties would help complete the product puzzle, PROOF The addition of the team can also enhance Yuga Labs ability to capture alpha opportunities, but most community members still have a rather negative attitude towards this deal.

Judging from the negative sentiment, the community’s doubts about the transaction are mainly concentrated on the following aspects:PROOF founder Kevin Rose has a poor reputation and should not have anything to do with him (Kevin has even been included as a consultant); blind acquisition of new series may lead to the overall dilution of the value of Yuga series NFTs (especially compared to Pudgy, which just received a huge DYM airdrop Penguins); there seems to be a divergence of interest perceptions between owners and the team; the teams focus is confused, product delivery is slow, and the integration of early acquisition projects has not made progress...

Adam Hollander, the founder of White Sands Game, said directly about the transaction: Im so angry... Moonbirds is one of the worst-run projects in the history of NFT. They made nearly $100 million but failed to fulfill any of their promises. ...Kevin doesnt deserve this, and now hes even become Yugas advisor??? I should calm down, but my first reaction is xxx sell everything.Yuga needs a new CEO!”

Well-known NFT collector and former BAYC largest holder Huang Licheng (Machi) also agreed that Yuga needs a change of coach when replying to Adam, and called for Separate the BAYC series from Yuga Labs”。

Franklin, another well-known NFT collector, said that for BAYC holders, suddenly being associated with the project and a founder who is very unpopular in the industry is like a slap in the face. …Yuga Labs acquisition of PROOF sounds as outrageous as LVMHs acquisition of Enron.

Franklin also said: BAYC now looks like just an (ordinary) project under Yuga. This is actually bad, because the holders of BAYC have played a huge role in Yugas success.But Yuga’s behavior of focusing on other priorities at this time has obviously reduced the interests of BAYC holders...There seems to be no longer a symbiotic relationship between the team and the holders. Holders are not involved in key decisions, and some members of the team are not active enough on social media to stay consistent with the community.

Another well-known BAYC community member, GeeGazza (who once invited famous rapper Eminem to attend) also expressed disappointment: To be honest,Now I see the words Yuga Labs Consultant written by Kevin on his profile and I want to vomit.”

Nick, the founder of the BAYC Taiwan community, questioned Yuga Labs’s delay in making the next move after making multiple acquisitions: “Should the NFTs previously acquired be integrated first? It’s been 2 years, where is the integration progress?What about Monkey Roadmap 2.0? It has been 2 years and there is no result yet. All I see is that the floor keeps falling. Otherside has also been developed for two years. Look at the price of Koda...its terrible. What do those who entered the market with 20 ETH think?

Wait, wait... Surrounding this unexpected acquisition, community members are protesting against Yuga Labs on multiple levels.

In response to widespread doubts in the community, Garga.eth, one of the co-founders of Yuga Labs, posted on the Therefore, this acquisition decision was made because we believe and know that the PROOF team can contribute to Yuga, and both parties can work together to build more, faster, and better content in the entire ecosystem.

However, the community generally did not buy Garga.eths vague explanation, and some extreme users even launched personal attacks on Garga.eth below the post. Subsequently,Yuga Labs officially announced that it will hold a community meeting Town Hall in the Discord channel at 9:00 am Beijing time tomorrow to further respond to various questions in the community.

As for being overtaken by Pudgy Penguins,GordonGoner.eth, another co-founder of Yuga Labs, responded: Finally we have a respectable opponent.

For BAYC, which has been on the throne alone for a long time, the concept of opponent has always seemed unclear. Until the rise of Pudgy Penguins, challengers came one after another, but they never threatened BAYCs dominant position.

But for the Pudgy Penguins, who are gaining momentum, whether they will again regard the mired BAYC as a rival is another matter.

NFTs are ushering in a new era.In the last cycle, BAYC has been the best reference for NFT success criteria.However, Pudgy Penguins completion of catching up with BAYC has proved the correctness of its IP construction ideas, and has also guided a new reference direction for more NFT projects. Its development path may become a new way to judge the value of NFTs in the next cycle. standard.

At the end of the article, I would like to post the comments of Sebastien, the head of zkSync DeFi business, on this matter.

“Yuga has built the most incredible NFT brand in the last cycle, everyone is fascinated by their products, Bieber, Eminem, Snoop, Steph Curry... countless stars have entered the scene, but today Pudgy Penguins surpassed them Yes, Pudgy Penguins is now in Walmart, xx That’s Walmart!”