Yuga Labs Buys CryptoPunks and Meebits, Expands NFT Empire 

With billions of dollars in investments and global acclaim (along with some controversy), NFTs have become the hottest digital ticket of the last few years. Within the NFT space, there are a number of companies that dominate in terms of popularity and sales. One of these is Yuga Labs. 

While non-NFT enthusiasts might not recognize the company name, they’ve probably heard of the Bored Yacht Ape Club, owned by Yuga Labs, at some point. The collection, which features images of animated apes, is one of the most popular in the world, raking in billions in sales. 

Now, Yuga Labs is about to get even bigger as it announced on March 11, 2022, the purchase of CryptoPunks and Meebits, two top NFT collections. The collections, which have grossed several billions of dollars between them, were previously owned by Larva Labs. 

The Ape Club Expands 

This sale is more than just a company buying ownership of intellectual property. By owning CryptoPunks and Meebits, Yuga Labs now has control of three of the most profitable NFT collections in the world.  

This means Yuga Labs is even more powerful within the industry and is becoming virtually unrivaled. Meanwhile, the management at Larva Labs seems to be excited about the future.

Matt Hall and John Watkinson, the co-founders of Larva Labs, have described Yuga Labs as, “the ideal stewards of the CryptoPunks and Meebits. In their hands, we are confident that they will continue to be vital, thriving projects in the emerging decentralized web.” 

Despite the sale, it has been reported that Larva Labs will keep the rights to some of the NFTs in the collections. 

Making NFT History 

NFT lovers might remember that Cryptopunks was one of the first popular NFT collections and even though many came after it, it remains popular. Currently, one of the 10,000 NFTs in the Cryptopunks collection sells for around 69.95 ETH, which is almost $200,000. 

Meebits, on its part, tends to sell for around 4.7 ETH per NFT and is very popular on OpenSea. The two will now be joining the Bored Yacht Ape Club over at Yuga Labs. 

Culturally, it is impossible to ignore just how influential the Ape Club has been in the industry. When many of us think of NFTs, our minds tend to go to the pixelated animal (usually monkeys or apes) profile pictures on Twitter. The Bored Yacht Ape Club was one of the first collections of that type to explode in popularity. 

In many ways, the Ape Club set the public standard for what we think of as NFTs. Now, its parent company is well on its way to becoming a bigger force in the NFT space not just culturally but financially as well. 

As the space is on track to grow even bigger in the next few years, it will be interesting to see what other studios might compete with Yuga Labs for control over top projects. Till then, we’ll just have to watch the market unfold, one NFT at a time.