The NFT market might have nosedived bigtime in 2022, but that’s not stopped Yuga Labs from expanding. Yuga Labs, the parent company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has acquired Web3 ecosystem WENEW and its flagship NFT collection 10KTF.
The latest integration of NFT collection 10KTF, is in addition to some of the biggest NFT collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Bored Ape Kennel Club, Bored Ape Chemistry Club and Meebits. With all the top NFT projects in its bag, the firm looks set to dominate the NFT space. Besides, the company owns ApeCoin, whose native token, APE, powers the Yugaverse. No other NFTs and digital collectibles company comes closer in terms of economic heft, community building, and social influence in the Web3 world.
Yuga Labs will induct WENEW’s co-founder and CEO Michael Figge as its new Chief Content Officer. Meanwhile, Beeple, who is best known for selling a single piece of NFT artwork for $69.3 million at an auction in March 2021, will serve as an advisor to Yuga Labs.
About WENEW
WENEW, co-founded by artist Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann, has pursued several brand collaborations since its launch in June 2021. Some of them are Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Playboy, and the Wimbledon tennis tournament. The startup is also popular for its flagship NFT collection 10KTF, which is an Ethereum NFT project built around a fictional tailor name “Wagmi-san” that creates digital apparel for various high-value profile picture (PFP) projects.
After the news of the acquisition went public, Yuga Labs teased the implementation of Wagmi-san into its upcoming Bored Ape-centric metaverse game, Otherside. Otherside confirmed the implementation with a tweet.
Yuga Labs
Yuga Labs has been steadily expanding its NFT projects and interactive experiences portfolio. The company allows holders to acquire intellectual property rights to use the characters for commercial endeavors. Ahead of the 2022 FIFA Worldcup, Adidas used its BAYC character, Indigo Herz, in an ad featuring football superstars like Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema. Adidas purchased Indigo Herz in September 2021 for 46 Ethereum, valued at about $156,000 then.
