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Yuga Labs's own handwriting: the origin of the $4 billion story - "Let's make an NFT"

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Yuga Labs Startup Memoir: How One Sentence Became $4 Billion

Original title: ""Let's make a NFT""

Original source: Yuga Labs

Original compilation: Rhythm BlockBeats

On March 23, Yuga Labs, the parent company of Boring Ape, paid 4 billion USD 450 million financing completed, led by a16z, with participation from Animoca Brands, LionTree, Sound Ventures, Thrive Capital, FTX, MoonPay, etc.

From a picture at the beginning to the current valuation of 4 billion US dollars, from obscurity to the stars of sports, entertainment, and VC, Yuga Labs only It took over a year. Acquire well-known IP, launch Ape Coin, use exciting videos to tell everyone about the arrival of Otherside and other IPs, and finally push the emotions to a climax with the financing news of $450 million led by a16z.

The founding team of Yuga Labs also wrote their own stories on the official website. Everything stems from the sentence on February 1, 2021: "Let's make an NFT." Rhythm BlockBeats translates it as follows:

We start with a detailed business plan.

Yuga Labs was founded by four friends: Gargamel, Gordon, Tomato and Sass.

It all stems from this sentence:

("In my opinion, The profile picture Gordon gave me on his phone was kind of rude??" -Garga)

Don't worry, let's start from scratch

Gordon and Garga first became interested in cryptocurrencies in 2017. They were excited at the time, but Twitter was full of shitposting.

You can read everything on Crypto Twitter and just scratch the surface of what's going on. Also, the crazy characters you meet while browsing Crypto Twitter looking for alpha (in search of the next crapcoin) are really engaging. So many millionaires (and many pretending to be) have anime profile pictures and send each other drab memes.

They contribute to cryptocurrency in the only way they know how: by reading a lot, spending some money, making some money, and lost everything.

Early 2021, The Hashmasks are published. We've heard about other NFT projects before like Crypto Kitties and Cryptopunks. But for the first time, Hashmasks feels that the technical aspects of NFT projects are not the focus. This is an art project mediated by blockchain and NFT technology. Technically, without doing anything crazy, it moved the whole space forward.

They sent another text message.

They enlisted two friends, Sass and Tomato, both software engineers, to help build something before they really knew what they were building.

(Text from Garga to Tomato. "At the time I thought JavaScript was Making an NFT is important, but it's not super awesome." -Garga)

Feels like a new wave of culture The wave is coming into cryptocurrencies (more specifically, Ethereum).

As the four of us learned more about NFTs, our appreciation for the possibilities this technology brought more excited. Not only is this an opportunity to create art and tell stories in new media, but if you can irrefutably prove that a piece of digital artwork is real, you can use that artwork as a way to access locked content, experiences, clothing key. anything. Your NFT can double as a membership card for an exclusive club.

Ape, nature is Ape.

Cryptocurrency traders have long affectionately called themselves "Ape." This is one reason why some of the most valuable NFTs in the Cryptopunks series are apes. We envision a future where crypto changes the world and everyone in the crypto space "makes it" (Supercycle, etc.). Everyone who "copycats" or works hard to get into cryptocurrency has grown beyond their wildest imaginations. But then what? What do boring "apes" do?

Our answer: hang out at a secret club in the swamp, only for apes. And doodle on a collaborative pixel board on the club bathroom wall.

True

After working with a team of freelance commercial illustrators to bring the idea to life, Bored Ape Yacht Club was ready to go. BAYC launched a week-long pre-sale on April 23, 2021, at a cost of minting Bored Ape NFTs of 0.08 ETH, or about $220 at the time. After a very slow week (only about 500 apes were minted during the pre-sale), all the remaining boring apes were minted in one wild night. The collection sells out on May 1, 2021. At one point, BAYC was the most used smart contract on the Ethereum network, leaving UniSwap far behind.

OG Team

These ragged, punk, world-weary bored apes are the result of a joint effort by a group of talented freelance illustrators.

@allseeingseneca After four days of working on basic character designs under our creative direction, @migwashere, @thomasdagley worked with two other unnamed artists for over a month to create Various emotes, clothing and accessories, as well as the design of the club itself.

Mutant Monkey by @thomasdagley< /a>Illustrated with @lovans, @1800seandotcom.

Those Big Moments

April 23, 2021

Bored Ape Yacht Club has a week-long pre-sale. The cost to mint a Bored Ape NFT was 0.08 ETH, which was about $220 at the time. A total of around 500 apes were cast during the pre-sale.

May 1, 2021

After a torturous week, the remaining bored apes (9,500 or so) were all cast in one wild night. The collection sold out in the early hours of May 1, 2021. That night, BAYC was the most used smart contract on the Ethereum network, leaving UniSwap far behind.

Our Discord went from a completely dead place to the hottest place in crypto.

May 9, 2021

BAYC LoFi Radio began as a recorded video and became live on May 21st. Truth be told, we're focused on other things in the roadmap, so the YT channel device has broken down multiple times, which is why there are very few views or comments lol.

May 29, 2021

Our first shipment sold out in 6 minutes. We packed all the boxes ourselves...and vowed to find a managing partner in the future.

June 18, 2021

Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) joins the BAYC family. Every Boring Ape owner can get a companion dog NFT from the Boring Ape Kennel Club smart contract. Adoption drives are usable for a week, then shut down forever. All proceeds from royalties for the first 6 weeks are donated to several animal charities, after which secondary sales commissions are set to zero.

August 8, 2021

We celebrated the grand opening of the BAYC Riverboat Casino in Decentraland with Play Money Poker powered by Decentral Games.

August 21, 2021

We have partnered with The Hundreds on a collection of t-shirts, hoodies and rugs.

August 28, 2021

Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) was established. Every Boring Ape owner receives a serum that can be used to mutate their Boring Ape into a mutant ape with the corresponding traits. The Public Mint also provided an additional 10,000 Mutant Ape NFTs.

September 9, 2021

Sotheby's "Ape in !" auction of 101 bored apes and 101 BAKC dogs has started. The hammer price of the Bored Ape lot was $24,393,000 and the BAKC lot was $1,835,000.

September 13, 2021

We launched an interactive scavenger hunt for BAYC members as they explored the inside and outside of the clubhouse and solved puzzles left by a mischievous monkey named Jimmy. We awarded the winner 10 ETH, a bored ape, a BAKC dog, and a pair of special kicks made by RTFKT.

September 17, 2021

Apes, Mutants and the wider NFT community celebrated in costumes at Christie's 'No Time Like the Present' auction in Hong Kong, including four in suits The bored ape. Bored Ape #1401 sold for HK$5,000,000 (US$640,000).

October 31 - November 6, 2021

We hosted the first APE FEST, a free week-long event for members. Members get access to an exclusive Halloween yacht party, art gallery and limited-edition merchandise pop-up, among other perks. They kept the party going on Wednesday night with a celebratory concert at the Brooklyn Steel, featuring a top-notch musical act and cameos from some big-name comedians. The owners of Ape and Mutant enjoyed a final hurray Saturday at a charity dinner at Carbone, one of New York City's most famous restaurants. The auction raised nearly $200,000.

All event images are provided by BAYC members and are not part of Yuga's media kit.

December 17, 2021

Together with gmoney and PUNKS Comic we are bringing adidas into the world of NFTs.

January 21, 2022

We started the battle. Bored Ape and Mutant Ape holders compete in the week-long BAYC x MAYC Mobile Game Contest. The top 1,000 scorers in each NFT series are eligible for physical prizes, including plush toys, artist-made bongs, sewer grill sculptures, pinball machines, and a modified 2002 Honda Accord.

Today

Yuga Labs has grown from four founders to over 40 people. Our new CEO Nicole Muniz aka @VStrangeYUGA and CCO @pezYUGA (who have been with us almost since the beginning) join our new COO @SodaOps and co-lead the team scaling the larger Yuga world.

This is just the beginning.

See you on "Otherside".