Introducing the "Web 3 Disney" AKA Yuga Labs

2022-05-13, 01:06

1. The metaverse layout of Yuga Labs is inseparable from IP reserve and ecosystem token construction.

2. The construction of the metaverse requires enough diverse IP to provide users with rich content. This is a way to build the metaverse step by step from bottom to top, which is what Yuga Labs is doing.

3. The total number of ApeCoin is 1 billion, 62% of which will be allocated to ApeCoin community, of which 15% will be allocated to the holders of Bored Apes and Mutant Apes series NFTs, and 47% will be used as the ecosystem fund of ApeCoin DAO and gradually released.

4. ApeCoin is not only the governance token of ApeCoin DAO, but also the general token of the whole metaverse ecosystem under Yuga Labs.
On May 6, the land sales of the metaverse project Otherside initiated by Yuga Labs, the parent company of BAYC, reached a new high.The title deed NFT Otherdeed#33 was traded at the price of 333.33ETH, with a value of nearly $1 million. Considering the popularity and land price, Otherside has obviously ranked among the top metaverse projects such as the Sandbox and Decentraland.

Since mid March, from the acquisition of CryptoPunks and Meebits, to the release of the ecosystem token Apecoin, and then to the release of the metaverse project Otherside, we have finally been able to see the full picture of the metaverse layout of Yuga Labs.

The Story of Otherside

The metaverse layout of Yuga Labs is inseparable from IP reserve and ecosystem token construction.

On March 14, Yuga Labs purchased the copyright of CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs, and became the largest studio in the NFT field, occupying half of the avatar NFT segment. Because this frequent acquisition of IP is quite similar to Disney in the last century, Yuga Labs is now also known as "Disney in the Web 3.0 era". In fact, Yuga Labs does not want to stop in the field of PFP. The acquisition of the two major NFT IP is only part of its metaverse ambition.

On March 19, Yuga Labs released a video preview of its metaverse project Otherside. In the preview, a Bored Ape smoking a cigar took a bottle of magic potion, and then met a series of NFT images including CryptoPunk, Mutant Ape, Meeits and World of Women. The construction of the metaverse requires enough diverse IP to provide users with enough rich content. This is a way to build the metaverse step by step from bottom to top, which is what Yuga Labs is doing.

Image: Twitter@Yuga Labs

On March 23, Yuga Labs announced that it had completed a financing of $450 million with a valuation of $4 billion, which was led by a16z and invested by Adidas Ventures, Samsung, Google Ventures, FTX Ventures and others. Since then, a16z also changed the avatar of its official twitter account to the avatar of Bored Ape NFT. Yuga Labs said that the main purpose of this fund is to develop the metaverse project; Otherside. Meanwhile, Wylie Aronow, co-founder of BAYC, also explained Yuga Labs' positioning for the Otherside metaverse; an interoperable and completely decentralized game world. “Interoperable” here refers to attracting more NFT IPs to enter and opening up the boundary between these IPs.

In addition to a large number of IP reserves and NFT, platform token is another puzzle of the decentralized metaverse. On March 17, BYAC announced the launch of the ecosystem governance token ApeCoin. The token is managed by ApeCoin DAO, and users holding ApeCoin can participate in ApeCoin DAO. In terms of token economics, the total number of ApeCoin is 1 billion, and there is no burning mechanism. 62% of the total is allocated to the ApeCoin community, of which 15% will be allocated to the holders of Bored Apes and Mutant Apes series NFT, and 47% will be used as the ecosystem fund of ApeCoin DAO and gradually released. 8% of the remaining total amount belongs to the founder team of BAYC, 16% belongs to the operation team of Yuga Labs, and 14% is allocated to the partners and investors of Yuga Labs.

Image: Member of the board of directors of ApeCoin DAO

From 8:30 a.m. on March 17, users holding Bored Ape and Mutant Ape or Kennel Club can claim their own number of ApeCoin. After the official release of ApeCoin, the price rose rapidly after a short decline, increasing by more than 2.5 times in 24 hours. On the same day, the floor price of BAYC rose sharply, breaking through 100ETH. ApeCoin is not only the governance token of ApeCoin DAO, but also the general token of the whole metaverse ecosystem under Yuga Labs.

After all these preparations are ready, on April 26, Yuga Labs naturally announced that it will officially launch the Otherside metaverse, and will start the Otherside metaverse land auction in the form of selling "title deed NFT" on April 30. The minting method will adopt Dutch auction (price reduction auction) and only support ApeCoin payment. The ApeCoin obtained in the auction will be locked for one year before it can be used for voting in ApeCoin DAO. Holders of Bored Ape and Mutant Ape can claim the land NFT 21 days after the auction.

After the exposure of the news, the price of ApeCoin rose steadily and reached an all-time high of $27.5 on the 29th. However, on the 29th, Yuga Labs announced that it had canceled the Dutch auction of Otherside and sold 305 ApeCoin at parity. This sudden mode change triggered a gas war on the day of sale, and even made Etherscan unavailable for a time. On May 1, the minting gas fee soared to thousands of Gwei.

ConclusionIn

just one year, Yuga Labs has grown from an unknown small studio to a well-known "Web3 Disney", from four ordinary cryptocurrency enthusiasts to a 40-person team including former executives of many well-known technology enterprises, which shows the almost unlimited growth potential of Web3.

In the mean time, the metaverse built by enterprises like Yuga Labs will be able to compete with Meta's metaverse. This situation of multiple metaverses in full bloom is what we are happy to see.

Author: Gate.io Researcher Ashley H. Translator: Joy Z.
* This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment advice.
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