Yuga Labs Nets $16.5M with Bitcoin Ordinals NFT Drop

Credit: Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Otherside Metaverse, netted $16.5 million in its first NFT drop on the Bitcoin blockchain. The drop, called Twelvefold, featured 288 generative art pieces inscribed directly onto the blockchain. The NFT company sold the NFTs via auction, with the top 288 bids receiving the NFTs.

The highest bid for the auction was over 7 BTC, while the lowest to garner a Twelvefold NFT came in just over 2 BTC. Supporters of Yuga Labs called the auction a ‘financial success’ for the company. To date, it is the largest NFT drop to take place on the Bitcoin blockchain and is part of over 300,000 NFTs that users have inscribed since the launch of Bitcoin Ordinals.

Yuga Labs marked the end of the auction with a Tweet yesterday:

While users who submitted winning bids were happy with the outcome, the auction was not without controversy. Several individuals criticized Yuga Labs for the bidding mechanism, which involved sending BTC to a unique Yuga Labs wallet. The company plans to send the unsuccessful bids back to the owners, a process some said is ‘a scammer’s dream.’

Yuga Labs originally announced the Twelvefold collection in February, calling it a base 12 art system that takes place on a 12×12 grid, which represents the cartography on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Yuga Labs Reigns Supreme in the NFT Landscape

After the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection rose to fame in 2021, Yuga Labs quickly became the top NFT company, known for making its holders money. In 2022 and 2023, that has still held true, with Yuga Labs often making big news with key hires and eye-popping dollar figures. Here are three stories involving Yuga Labs.

First, a week ago, Yuga Labs announced the pending launch of its Bitcoin Ordinals Twelvefold collection. The news created a stir in the NFT world, as Yuga Labs drops typically do. The drop is the company’s first since its controversial Otherside Metaverse drop, which crashed Etherscan.

Next, a day before the above news, the main prize from Yuga Labs’ Dookey Dash game sold for $1.6 million or 1,000 ETH. The seller is a top gamer with over 4 million subscribers on YouTube. It is uncertain what role the prize will have moving forward but there’s no doubt some find it valuable.

Lastly, three months ago, Yuga Labs announced the hiring of Daniel Alegre as its new CEO. Alegre has a strong background, previously having been the President and COO of Activision Blizzard.

As the news shows, Yuga Labs is off to a hot start in 2023. Here at Rarity Sniper, we’ll pay close attention to what the company does next.