Key Takeaways:
- Yuga Labs just acquired the rights to two of the market’s most popular NFT collections.
- Yuga Labs today announced that “We are pleased to announce that Yuga has acquired the Intellectual Property (IP) for the CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections from Larva Labs.”
Yuga Lab has just acquired the rights to two of the market’s most popular NFT collections. Yuga Labs today announced that “We are pleased to announce that Yuga has acquired the Intellectual Property (IP) for the CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections from Larva Labs.” They further wrote that “This means that we now own the brands, copyright in the art, and other IP rights for both collections, along with 423 CryptoPunks and 1711 Meebits.”
Yuga Labs is all set to enter into the NFT space. They stated in the announcement that Yuga Labs did this because they admired CryptoPunks and the visionary work of the project’s founders, Matt and John. Their work advanced NFTs, the Ethereum blockchain, and the entire crypto space, and influenced how Yuga Labs will build BAYC.
As per Matt Hall and John Watkinson “Yuga Labs are the innovators of the modern profile picture project, and the best in the world at operating these projects. They are the ideal stewards of the CrytoPunks and Meebits. In their hands, we are confident that they will continue to be vital, thriving projects in the emerging decentralized web.”
The announcement further said that this deal arose organically from conversations between their partner and the founders of Larva Labs. Matt and John will not be joining Yuga as a result of this acquisition. They will continue to run Larva Labs and do what they do best: create awesome projects that help shape the future of web3.
The announcement said that as a first step, Yuga Labs will soon grant CryptoPunks and Meebits owners the same commercial rights as BAYC and MAYC holders. By granting these rights, Yuga Labs is further aligning CryptoPunks and Meebits with the web3 ethos, and it anticipates that many third-party developers and community creators will incorporate CryptoPunks and Meebits into their web3 projects. Yuga Labs is currently working with its legal team to draught new terms and conditions for CryptoPunks and Meebits holders.
However, CryptoPunks and Meebits are unlikely to adopt the “club” model used by BAYC. Yuga stated that BAYC will remain the main project, while CryptoPunks is a “historic” collection. CryptoPunks was, in fact, one of the first major NFT collections to gain widespread attention. Yuga Labs, on the other hand, plans to add utility to the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections.
However, people over Twitter are sharing a lot of consternation from CryptoPunk owners regarding Yuga Labs acquiring the IP and dev punks, that it cheapens the brand somehow.
