community accuses Yuga Labs of killing popular NFT collection

CryptoPunks, backed by the Yuga Labs team, relaunched with a new NFT collection that turned out to be a complete flop.

Yuga Labs has created a new collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called Super Punk World, with 500 NFTs as three-dimensional figures that “blur the boundaries of race and gender.” The idea is to erase the boundaries between race and gender and rethink the essence of virtual and real identity.

This is the first collection created by Yuga Labs under the CryptoPunks brand. The author of the NFT collection is artist Nina Abney. The digital characters match their artistic style and pay homage to the first web3 projects, particularly CryptoPunks. Furthermore, they also raise pressing social issues, namely racism and sexism.

Project co-founder Greg Solano said the team plans to collaborate with world-class artists to merge web3 with the traditional art world.

An auction has been planned to sell tokens from the Super Punk World collection. The highest price would be announced first, and at certain time intervals, the value of the NFT would decrease until the asset was purchased or its price reached a set minimum. However, after criticism from the community, Yuga Labs chose a different path.

The “stupidest idea” and the CryptoPunks killers

Despite the global goals, the collection was criticized by members of the crypto community. Some users condemned the artistic style and concept as an attempt to rethink the cult project CryptoPunks. Others accused Abney of inciting hatred in the community through her work focusing on race and gender.

One of the users noted that Yuga Laboratories literally “killed” the idea of ​​CryptoPunks.

The developer of Ordinals protocol, Leonidas, observed that with the launch of the new CryptoPunks collection, Yuga Labs is simply looking to replenish their wallets and follow basic game theory and incentives. In this case, the owners of the original CryptoPunks collection are to blame for everything.

“Yuga owns nothing. Punk holders are the owners of CryptoPunks. So start acting like it and stop pretending this random collection has any meaning or relationship to CryptoPunks.”

Leonidas, developer of the Ordinals protocol

A collector with the nickname quary.sats observed that “blurring the line between genres” is “the stupidest idea” that came to the minds of CryptoPunks brand representatives. He advised the team to leave Yuga Labs and move on.

Yuga Labs will abandon the CryptoPunks brand

Following a barrage of criticism over the new collection, Solano announced that the company would cease any activity surrounding CryptoPunks, leaving the collection as a completely decentralized blockchain project. He also mentioned that the last step in promoting the project would be the popularization of the NTF collection among the public of various museums.

The Yuga Labs team decided to distribute Super Punk World NFTs via an airdrop to those who support Abney’s work. At the same time, Solano emphasized that Yuga Labs will “no longer touch” CryptoPunks.

“What about the punks? Yuga will no longer touch punks. They will just be decentralized and preserved on the blockchain. The only thing we intend to do is support some museums and institutions in their quest to acquire punk and help educate their audiences about them.”

Greg Solano, co-founder of Yuga Labs

Abney confirmed Yuga’s plans and thanked the project for its support. She also condemned attacks from the crypto community.

“I am absolutely disgusted by some of the racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic comments that the controversy surrounding this project has unearthed. What really lies at the weak point of this space?”

Nina Abney, NFT artist

CryptoPunks before Yuga Labs and copyright purchase

The CryptoPunks project became one of the first NFT collections to achieve popularity. Its success has inspired many digital artists in their creativity.

The creator of CryptoPunks was the New York company Larva Labs, founded by developers Matt Hall and John Watkinson. They started working on the project in 2017. CryptoPunks is based on combining art with the power of non-fungible tokens.

The digital art in the CryptoPunks collection was one of the most expensive. The leap from giving away free items to selling NFTs for big money comes amid the growing popularity of non-fungible tokens.

In 2022, Yuga Labs announced the acquisition of intellectual property rights to popular NFT collections released by Larva Labs. As with the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Yuga Labs has assigned intellectual property and commercial and exclusive licensing rights to NFT owners.

As part of the acquisition of the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections, Yuga Labs received ownership rights to 423 CryptoPunks and 1,711 Meebits.

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