On the day Yuga acquired PROOF, the "Bored Ape" was dethroned by the "Fat Penguin."

Original｜Odaily Planet Daily

Author｜Azuma

In the early morning of February 17, Beijing time, the development team of "Bored Apes" (BAYC), Yuga Labs, officially announced that it has completed the acquisition of the Moonbirds development company PROOF (Yuga Labs co-founder Garga.eth revealed that this is a "full equity transaction"). The acquisition includes the PROOF team, intellectual property, the art collection PROOF Collective, Moonbirds, Mythics, Moonbirds Oddities, and the Grails exhibition series.

On the same afternoon, "Pudgy Penguins" officially surpassed BAYC in floor price. According to Blur data, as of the time of writing, the floor price of BAYC is reported at 22.15 ETH, while the floor price of Pudgy Penguins is reported at 22.54 ETH.

Setting aside the OG project CryptoPunks, which is already under Yuga Labs, this is also the first time in the history of BAYC, which has long dominated the PFP NFT "throne," that it has been surpassed by another project.

With a clearer IP building strategy, Pudgy Penguins has maintained a strong upward trend over the past few months, achieving several times the increase. For many investors who are paying attention to the dynamics of the NFT market, the flip of Pudgy Penguins over BAYC is not entirely unexpected, but the occurrence of this historically significant moment on the same day that Yuga Labs made a high-profile acquisition of PROOF is indeed an awkward coincidence.

Odaily Planet Daily Note: For more on the growth story of Pudgy Penguins, see “Odaily Interview with Pudgy Penguins CEO: Pudgy Penguins is a character everyone will love”; “‘The Hero Returns’: How Pudgy Penguins Went from Losing Hope to Amazon's Best Seller?”.

After Yuga Labs officially announced the acquisition of PROOF, there was a noticeable split in the community's attitude towards this transaction. While some community members believe that acquiring CC0 attribute NFTs like Moonbirds helps to fill product gaps, and that the addition of the PROOF team can enhance Yuga Labs' ability to capture alpha opportunities, the majority of community members hold a rather negative attitude towards this transaction.

The negative sentiment primarily focuses on the following aspects: PROOF founder Kevin Rose has a poor reputation and should not be associated with him (he was even included in the advisory team); blindly acquiring new series may lead to an overall dilution of the value of Yuga's NFTs (especially compared to Pudgy Penguins, which just received a huge DYM airdrop); there seems to be a divergence in the interests of holders and the team; the team's focus is confusing, product delivery is slow, and there has been no progress in integrating previously acquired projects…

Adam Hollander, founder of White Sands Game, directly expressed his frustration regarding the transaction: "I am so damn angry… Moonbirds is one of the worst-operated projects in NFT history; they made nearly $100 million but delivered on none of their promises… Kevin does not deserve this treatment, and now he is even a consultant for Yuga??? I should calm down, but my first reaction is to xxx sell everything. Yuga needs a new CEO!"

Well-known NFT collector and former largest BAYC holder Huang Licheng (Machi) also agreed with Adam in response, stating that "Yuga needs to change leadership" and called for "independence of the BAYC series from Yuga Labs."

Another well-known NFT collector, Franklin, expressed that for BAYC holders, suddenly associating the project with a founder who is very unpopular in the industry feels like a slap in the face… Yuga Labs acquiring PROOF sounds as absurd as LVMH acquiring Enron.

Franklin also stated: "BAYC now looks like just another (ordinary) project under Yuga. This is really bad because BAYC holders played a huge role in Yuga's success, but Yuga's current focus on other priorities clearly undermines the interests of BAYC holders… There seems to no longer be a symbiotic relationship between the team and the holders. Holders are not involved in key decisions, and some team members are not active enough on social media to stay aligned with the community."

Another relatively well-known BAYC community member, GeeGazza (who once brought famous rapper Eminem into the space), also expressed disappointment: "Honestly, I feel like throwing up just seeing the words 'Yuga Labs advisor' written by Kevin in his profile."

Nick, the founder of the BAYC Taiwan community, questioned Yuga Labs for not taking further action after multiple acquisitions: "Shouldn't the previously acquired NFTs be integrated first? It's been 2 years, where is the integration progress? What about the Monkey Roadmap 2.0? It's been 2 years, and there are still no results, just a continuous drop in floor prices. Otherside has also been in development for two years; look at Koda's price… it's pitiful, what do those who entered at 20 ETH think!?"

And so on… Community members are voicing their grievances towards Yuga Labs on multiple levels regarding this unexpected acquisition.

In response to the community's widespread concerns, Garga.eth, one of the co-founders of Yuga Labs, stated today on the X platform that they have heard concerns about whether this acquisition might distract Yuga's attention, which is also a concern for Yuga. The reason for making this acquisition decision is that they believe and understand that the PROOF team can contribute to Yuga, and both parties can build more, faster, and better content together within the entire ecosystem.

However, the community generally does not buy Garga.eth's vague explanation, and some extreme users even launched personal attacks against Garga.eth in the comments. Subsequently, Yuga Labs officially announced that a community meeting Town Hall will be held in the Discord channel at 9:00 AM Beijing time tomorrow to further respond to various concerns within the community.

As for being surpassed by Pudgy Penguins, another co-founder of Yuga Labs, GordonGoner.eth, responded by saying: "Finally, we have a worthy opponent."

For BAYC, which has long sat on its throne, the concept of "opponent" has always seemed unclear. Since the rise of Pudgy Penguins, challengers have come and gone, but none have ever threatened BAYC's dominant position.

However, for the thriving Pudgy Penguins, whether they will still regard the struggling BAYC as an opponent is another matter.

NFTs are entering a new era. In the last cycle, BAYC has always been the best reference for the success standard of NFTs, but Pudgy Penguins surpassing BAYC has proven the correctness of its IP building approach, and it also provides a new reference direction for more NFT projects. Its development path may become a new standard for judging NFT value in the next cycle.

At the end of the article, I would like to share a comment from Sebastien, head of zkSync DeFi business, regarding this matter.

"Yuga created the most incredible NFT brand in the last cycle; everyone was enamored with their products, Bieber, Eminem, Snoop, Steph Curry… countless stars entered the space, but today Pudgy Penguins has surpassed them. Pudgy Penguins is now in Walmart, xx that’s Walmart!"