What has YugaLabs brought to CryptoPunks and Meebits after six months of acquisition?

Author: Azuma, ODAILY

On March 12, Yuga Labs (the developer of BAYC) and Larva Labs (the developer of CryptoPunks) jointly announced that Yuga Labs has acquired the IP of CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs, including brand, artistic copyrights, and other IP rights.

On the day of the acquisition, the news stimulated the secondary market, causing the floor prices of CryptoPunks and Meebits to rise simultaneously, surpassing 75 ETH and 6.9 ETH respectively, with a significant increase in trading volume. Four months later (as of 15:10), the floor price of CryptoPunks is reported at 71.95 ETH, while Meebits is at 4.75 ETH. Compared to the poor performance of other blue-chip NFTs during the same period, both have shown relatively strong resilience in this bear market.

So, aside from these purely data-driven performances, what fundamental changes have occurred in CryptoPunks and Meebits after nearly half a year of acquisition? Has Yuga Labs brought any empowerment? Is the community satisfied?

Regarding Commercial Licensing

First, let's look at the core aspect of the acquisition—commercial licensing.

Reflecting on the context of the acquisition in March, Larva Labs was deeply mired in questions about "copyright closure," with the market generally believing that Larva Labs' choice not to grant relevant commercial rights to NFT holders was less "Web3" compared to BAYC and other CC0 projects.

After Yuga Labs' acquisition announcement, the team explicitly mentioned that the first step after acquiring CryptoPunks and Meebits would be to grant the holders of these two NFT series the same commercial rights as BAYC holders. To this end, Yuga Labs is working with legal teams to draft new terms for these two series.

Looking at recent market dynamics, Yuga Labs has been relatively swift in this regard.

Recently, Yuga Labs announced that on August 15, it will release the IP protocol for Meebits (which also includes CryptoPunks), granting Meebits BAYC-style licensing rights that allow holders to create related content to promote their Meebits in real life and the metaverse. However, Meebits cannot be used for any illegal purposes or hate speech, and Yuga Labs reserves the right to make changes.

A more tangible manifestation is reflected in CryptoPunks. Recently, news about the well-known jewelry brand Tiffany & Co. launching limited edition CryptoPunks custom pendants has garnered widespread attention from the NFT community.

In response, Yuga Labs stated that although it did not directly participate in this collaboration, it recognizes that this event is a good example of holders collaborating with brands through IP licensing agreements. Yuga Labs also mentioned that although the new commercial licensing terms for CryptoPunks have not yet been released (which will also need to wait until August 15), it affirmed that the community will be able to use their owned NFTs to create various types of content and derivatives (not for illegal purposes or hate speech).

Regarding New Application Expansion

Compared to the "urgent" reform of commercial rights, the continuous expansion of applications is fundamental to determining the long-term vitality of an NFT project.

At the time of the acquisition in March, Yuga Labs made the following statement regarding the future development of CryptoPunks and Meebits:

Yuga Labs' vision is to hope that more third-party developers and community creators will incorporate CryptoPunks and Meebits into their Web3 projects. Along this journey, Yuga Labs will work with them to build the brands of CryptoPunks and Meebits. More specifically, Yuga Labs stated that it does not intend to force these two NFT series into the club model it developed for BAYC but will build new applications around CryptoPunks and Meebits. However, these events are not currently urgent, so before deciding on the next steps, Yuga Labs will listen to community opinions.

In April, Yuga Labs founder Gordon Goner reiterated that they are studying how to empower the Meebits NFT series, and once the metaverse project Otherside is launched, the entire team will begin to advance this work.

Based on current dynamics, the release of Otherside is still in a relatively early stage. Although the project will also involve some interactions with CryptoPunks and Meebits in its promotional content, this does not currently fall under the "new applications" that Yuga Labs mentioned.

Combining Yuga Labs and Goner's related statements (not urgent, waiting for Otherside to be completed), along with the fact that Yuga Labs has not yet initiated a large-scale community survey on this matter, it is expected that the advancement regarding applications will still require further waiting.

Some Criticisms

Of course, the changes after the acquisition are not all "positive," and there are also many controversies and doubts within the community.

On July 29, Yuga Labs released an announcement—starting immediately, a 5% royalty will be charged on all secondary market sales of Meebits (previously both Meebits and CryptoPunks had a 0% royalty, the latter remains unchanged for now), for team operations and other purposes.

The controversy surrounding this announcement mainly focuses on two aspects: first, Yuga Labs did not seek the collective opinion of the community beforehand but made this decision in a completely centralized manner; second, the 5% royalty cut is higher than that of some of Yuga Labs' "favorite" projects, such as BAYC and MAYC, which both have a royalty cut of 2.5%. Some community members believe that Yuga Labs' move is "bleeding" Meebits to support other core projects.

The community's doubts are not without reason, but from Yuga Labs' perspective, it is also difficult to verify whether each of its subordinate projects has independent cash flow, and if so, whether the development work for Meebits requires more funding. The only way to validate Yuga Labs' reasoning is to see whether it can deliver results that meet community expectations in the future.

In Conclusion

In summary, since the acquisition of CryptoPunks and Meebits on March 12, although objectively the Otherside project and the favored BAYC are the ecological focus, Yuga Labs has been advancing related work according to its commitments.

The primary task of commercial licensing iteration is currently in the submission stage, awaiting the final release on August 15. After that, Yuga Labs will face the real challenge—bringing new applications to CryptoPunks and Meebits.

As the biggest winner in the early explosion of the entire NFT space, Yuga Labs' narrative ability has always been top-tier, but as time goes on, market expectations and patience are also wearing thin, and the future development remains uncertain.