Until recently, relatively little was known about Yuga Labs Company, especially in contrast to its high-profile NFT projects. However, the company has since emerged as one of the most dominant and financially heavy-hitting players in the NFT ecosystem. Among its biggest headlines include the big plans to expand into the metaverse.
Yuga Labs company also plans to create development tools to integrate NFTs outside of its project. The move has kept Yuga Labs in the headlines, barely weeks after acquiring CryptoPunks and Meebits. The move cemented Yuga Labs as the owner of the top three biggest NFT collections on the market, and a week after its ApeCoin launch.
Yuga Labs Company
Yuga Labs Company launched in February 2021 with the goal to build a media empire centered wholesomely around non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The company made a name for itself by launching and acquiring the biggest NFT projects so far – the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)
Making the BAYC NFTs was Yuga Labs’ first step toward fulfilling its NFT-related aspirations. The company is powerful in a remarkable way with a lot of influence because of its ties to almost every big company in the crypto and NFT ecosystems. In 2022, Yuga Labs set its target much higher, intending to dominate the metaverse.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is a collection of 10,000 unique Bored Ape NFTs. On April 23, Yuga Labs launched BAYC mint, with the final sale set for May 1, 2021. With this calendar, the initial floor price was set at 0.08 ETH, which translates to approximately $240. In August of the same year, the floor price soared to 44 ETH, around $137,000, and today the project is worth billions.
Bored Ape Kennel Club BAKC
Apart from BAYC, Yuga Labs also launched another project on June 18, 2021- Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC). The project is a spinoff collection for Bored Ape holders. There are 10,000 total Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs.
According to project developers, each BAKC dog is stored as an ERC-721 token on the Ethereum blockchain and hosted on IPFS. Every dog in the kennel club is unique and programmatically generated from over 170 possible traits. Some traits are rarer than others, and the NFTs are available on OpenSea.
Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC)
Another launch attributed to the Yuga Labs company is the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), launched on August 28, 2021. MAYC NFTs, or Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, are a group of 20K mutant apes. Mutants are the membership’s final tier and the end of BAYC’s Roadmap 1.0.
Those same NFTs cannot be obtained normally because the bored ape NFT must be exposed to a vial of Mutant serum. The other method is to buy them directly from OpenSea.
Noteworthy, the sales achieved from both BAKC and MAYC NFTs quickly took off, selling for thousands of dollars across secondary markets. Celebrities, among other renowned personalities, started buying these digital collectibles.
The year 2021 was very successful for Yuga Labs as the company raked in a staggering $127 million net revenue. With such a lucrative first year, Yuga Labs cast its nets further in 2022, starting the year with the goal of expansion.
In March alone, Yuga Labs acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits. These are two of the leading NFT projects in value. With such a community record, the company boldly announced the launch of a new metaverse project called Otherside.
Yuga Labs Funding And Profits
In late March this year, Yuga Labs finalized funding round where they were able to raise $450 million. With this fundraiser, the company’s valuation scaled to $4 billion. Andreessen Horowitz, otherwise known as a16z within the crypto world, spearheaded the funding round.
Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital giant that also played enabling roles for Web3 organizations such as Dapper Labs, Coinbase, and OpenSea. The venture capital helped these companies start. Other investors include CoinBase, Animoca Brands, Samsung, and Google Ventures.
Yuga Labs has recorded remarkable success since they first started. Even now, the company continues with the same trend of growth, success, and expansion. By the end of 2022, Yuga Labs expects to have generated up to $455 million, which for the most part, will be achieved through the sale of virtual plots and land in Otherwise.
Yuga Labs’ Metaverse- Otherside
The announcement about Yuga Labs’ metaverse, Otherside, first came in March 2022. The NFT community noted this communication and waited in anticipation for the company’s metaverse project.
Reportedly, the Otherwise metaverse is the largest project that Yuga Labs has taken up. It represents the largest expansion of the Bored Ape NFT universe and aims to be the centerpiece of what is essentially a new media empire. Although the launch was full of challenges and received a rather poor adoption by the greater NFT community, the company remains firm about this project.
With the 2022 pitch deck leak, the NFT ecosystem first saw what Yuga labs were trying to achieve with the Otherwise project. Per the deck, Yuga Labs invites the larger NFT community to join, including those priced out of BAYC membership.
According to news reports, Otherwise will be its metaverse, offering an interoperable experience. This means users will be able to move between metaverses. The project also entails popular NFT collections such as Cool Cats, World of Women, and CrypToadz, among others. In this regard, this metaverse represents what can be defined as an open-world game, wherein collectors cab own land and interact with all manner of ecosystems while enjoying the unique characters that inhabit these ecosystems.
Yuga Labs Maintaining Its Lead In The NFT Space
Yuga Labs faces stiff competition from other players in the technology arena, such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft. The technology companies are all working hard towards developing their metaverses. Decentraland was headlining last fall after a plot of land sold for 2.4 million dollars. The metaverse project is also built atop the Ethereum network.
Yuga Labs’ decision on how to develop these Web3 spaces is also a concern. On the company’s website, Yuga Labs operates with the mission statement flashing in bold black-and-white letters. The mission statement reads, “We believe that the potential of Web3 can be realized […]. People are making cool things together with no borders, no rulers.”
Whether or not Yuga Labs chooses to inhabit that rhetoric with efforts to shape the future of the NFT community remains to be seen. Even so, the company is looking to integrate NFTs beyond its project. The company was reported to be partnering with multiple game studios for Otherside project. However, in an unusual move by the exclusive club, it will not be limited to BAYC NFT holders.
Yuga Labs is also planning to create development tools to integrate NFTs outside of its project. ApeCoin, the token tied to the BAYC NFT collection launched last week, will be the currency of the Otherside project.
Conclusion
There is no clarity about whether Yuga Labs can compete with the renowned companies mentioned above in the long run. However, given the scale and speed at which the company is expanding to this date, it would be unwise to look at them as anything short of a formidable opponent and worthy contender in the NFT and metaverse spaces.
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