One of the most popular and successful non-fungible token collections on the Solana blockchain, Solana Monkey Business (SMB), has been acquired by MonkeyDAO — an independent collective of SMB holders.
MonkeDAO made the $2 million purchase for the SMB IP and all related keys, assets, and accounts from Hadeswap, a decentralized crypto trading protocol for Solana. The deal was authorized by a HadesDAO governance proposal and approved by almost 97% of token-based votes from MonkeDAO.
The acquisition comes after months of dispute between the DAO and the original creators of SMB over IP rights and a share of secondary market royalties to fund DAO initiatives that brought the project value. According to MonkeDAO, the anonymous creators of SMB promised a certain amount of funding and only delivered a portion of it.
In 2022, the DAO was so at odds with the SMB creators it considered “wrapping” their SMB tokens to take royalties away from the creators and send them directly to the DAO treasury. Then in February this year, Hadeswap successfully purchased the SMB IP rights from the creators for an unknown price. Now SMB has been bought by MonkeDAO, putting the prized NFT collection into the hands of the holders that helped make it successful.
MonkeDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that was formed by token holders shortly after SMB’s Gen2 launch. It works to bring SMB value to holders by hosting live and virtual events, creating a DAO-managed Solana network validator, investing, and more.
Solana Monkey Business launched in 2021 with a small Gen1 collection followed by 5,000-pixel profile pictures. It is now considered a blue chip Solana project, and its Gen2 collection has generated over $164 million worth of trading volume to date, according to CryptoSlam. It’s current floor price on MagicEden is about 200 SOL or around $4,400.
CEO and co-founder of MonkeDAO said that the acquisition was a big step forward for the community to take ownership and leadership responsibilities of the NFT collection. Today MonkeDAO is celebrating the news with members calling the moment its “Independence Day.”
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Make Web3 Moves
For holders of SMB NFTs and members of the MonkeDAO, putting the collection back into the hands of its community is a big deal. But MonkeDAO isn’t the only decentralized autonomous organization that’s been making waves in Web3 recently. At Rarity Sniper, we’ve covered several stories recently about DAOs. Here are some of the most recent headlines.
First, about a month ago, NounsDAO, approved a proposal to commission a full-length film starring the Nouns NFTs. The film will be created by Atrium, a Web3 network of artists, and will consist of a series of short episodes featuring the Nouns characters.
Next, about three months ago, NounsDAO made headlines again when it announced the publication of a series of comics published by Titan Comics and ComicsDAO. The comics will be authored by the senior editor at Titan, David Leach, and illustrated by Danny Schlitz, who has worked with Marvel, Warner Brothers, Disney, and Netflix in the past.
Finally, L’Oréal’s cosmetic brand NYX Professional Makeup recently announced it was launching an online beauty “incubator” in the form of a DAO. The DAOs members will use governance tokens to vote on future projects and proposals.
DAOs are blockchain based organizations that share common interests and a bank account — and they are becoming increasingly popular for organizing communities in Web3. The recent purchase of SMB from MonkeDAO isn’t just a win for SMB holders, but also a testament to the power of DAOs. At Rarity Sniper, we’ll keep an eye out for any developing news.
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