Yuga Labs’s TwelveFold NFT auction garners over $16.5 Mln in 24 hrs

Key Takeaways

• The highest bid in the election was 7.1159 BTC, while the lowest successful bid was 2.2501 BTC
• The collection, with over 300 generative art pieces, garnered over 3,000 bids in 24 hours.

Yuga Labs closed its TwelveFold auction on Monday, generating over $16.5 million in less than 24 hours.  TwelveFold-Yuga’s debut Bitcoin NFT Collection with over 300 generative art pieces garnered over 3,000 bids in 24 hours.

According to the official TwelveFold website, there were 3,246 bidders, and the auction generated 735.7 BTC, approximately $16.5 million. The Bored Ape-parent company noted that it had also reserved 12 inscriptions for “contributors, future donations, and philanthropic efforts.”

The highest bid in the election was 7.1159 BTC, or roughly $159,500, while the lowest successful bid was 2.2501 BTC, roughly above $50,000.  The TwelveFold NFTs stand out from other NFT collections since they are generative art pieces that combine 3D graphics and hand-drawn features.

According to Yuga Labs, each of the 288 pieces won at auction will be generated by the same code, and pieces won at a higher bidding price will not appear qualitatively different from pieces won at lower bidding prices.

The TwelveFold auction has ended. Congratulations to the top 288 bidders – you will receive your inscription within one week. Valid bids that did not rank in the top 288 will have their bid amount returned to their receiving address within 24 hours.

— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) March 6, 2023

The auction has also come under controversy for the way it has been arranged. The auction process requires interested buyers to transfer Bitcoin to a Yuga Labs deposit address to place their bids. The company then custodies users Bitcoin until the auction ends; the funds are returned if a bid is unsuccessful.

Many in the crypto community had flagged the auction as a “scammer’s dream” while pointing out that “Yuga is establishing a REALLY bad precedent running an auction like this.” Crypto enthusiasts have also commented that having to conduct refunds for unsuccessful bids manually is like the “stone age.”

Yuga is establishing REALLY bad precedence running an auction like this. They are taking custody of bidders’ bitcoin with a promise to send back unsuccessful bids. Not doubting they’ll do that, but this model is a scammer’s dream, and credible players need to set better example.

— ordinally (@veryordinally) March 6, 2023

Bitcoin Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor also noted that if Yuga were to conduct a similar auction, he would urge people to boycott the project.

Yuga launched the Ordinal Inscription TwelveFold NFT collection in late February, describing it as a “base 12 art system localized around a 12×12 grid, a visual allegory for the cartography of data on the BTC blockchain.” Ordinals are NFTs that can be “inscribed” into one Satoshi, the smallest denomination of a BTC, and also remain permanently on the blockchain.