Yuga's acquisition of PROOF raises community doubts, while on the same day "Bored Ape" floor price is surpassed by "Fat Penguin".

Original Title: "Yuga Acquires PROOF, 'Bored Ape' Dethroned by 'Fat Penguin'"

Original Author: Azuma, Odaily Star Daily

On February 17th, Beijing time, the development team of "Bored Ape Yacht Club" (BAYC), Yuga Labs, officially announced the completion of the acquisition of Moonbirds development company PROOF (Yuga Labs co-founder Garga.eth revealed that this was a "full equity transaction"), including the PROOF team, intellectual property, art collection PROOF Collective, Moonbirds, Mythics, Moonbirds Oddities, and Grails exhibition series.

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

Setting aside CryptoPunks, which is now also under the Yuga Labs umbrella, this is the first time in BAYC's history, a long-standing leader in the PFP NFT space, that it has been surpassed by another project.

With a clearer IP building strategy, Pudgy Penguins has maintained a strong upward trend in the past few months, achieving multiple times of growth. Many investors who are paying attention to the NFT market dynamics believe that Pudgy Penguins' flip of BAYC was not an unpredictable event, but this historic moment happened on the same day as Yuga Labs' high-profile acquisition of PROOF, which is a rather embarrassing coincidence.

After Yuga Labs announced the completion of the acquisition of PROOF, there was a clear division within the community regarding this transaction. Although some members of the community believe that the acquisition of CC0 attributes such as Moonbirds NFT will help fill the product puzzle, and the addition of the PROOF team can enhance Yuga Labs' ability to capture alpha opportunities, most community members still hold a fairly negative attitude towards this transaction.

From the perspective of overall negative emotions, the community's doubts about this transaction mainly focus on the following aspects: PROOF founder Kevin Rose has a poor reputation and should not be involved (even listed as an advisor); blind acquisition of new series may lead to overall dilution of Yuga series NFT value (especially compared to Pudgy Penguins who just received a huge DYM airdrop); there seems to be a difference in understanding of interests between holders and the team; the team's focus is confusing, product delivery progress is slow, and there has been no progress in the integration of previous acquisition projects...

White Sands Game founder Adam Hollander directly cursed about the transaction: "I'm very angry...Moonbirds is one of the worst-operated projects in NFT history. They made nearly $100 million, but didn't fulfill any promises...Kevin doesn't deserve this treatment. He's even become a consultant for Yuga??? I should calm down, but my first reaction is to sell everything. Yuga needs a new CEO!"

Famous NFT collector and former largest holder of BAYC, Huang Licheng (Machi), also agreed with Adam's comment that "Yuga needs a change of leadership" and called for "BAYC series to be separated from Yuga Labs".

Another well-known NFT collector, Franklin, said that for BAYC holders, suddenly being associated with a founder who is very unpopular in the industry is like being slapped in the face... The acquisition of PROOF by Yuga Labs sounds as absurd as LVMH acquiring Enron.

Franklin also said: "BAYC now appears to be just an ordinary project under Yuga. This is actually very bad because BAYC holders have played a huge role in Yuga's success, but Yuga's behavior of focusing on other priorities at this time clearly reduces the interests of BAYC holders... There seems to be no longer a symbiotic relationship between the team and the holders. Holders did not participate in key decision-making, and some members of the team were not active enough on social media to maintain consistency with the community."

Another well-known BAYC community member, GeeGazza (who once brought famous rapper Eminem to the stage), also expressed disappointment, saying: "To be honest, I feel sick when I see the words 'Yuga Labs Advisor' written on Kevin's profile."

BAYC Taiwan community founder Nick questioned Yuga Labs for not taking any action after multiple acquisitions: "Shouldn't the NFTs acquired earlier be integrated first? It's been 2 years, what's the progress of integration? Where's Monkey Roadmap 2.0? It's been 2 years and there are no results, only seeing the floor keep falling. Otherside has also been developed for two years, look at the price of Koda... It's pathetic. How do those who entered with 20 ETH feel?"

And so on and so forth... In light of the unexpected acquisition deal, community members are voicing their condemnation towards Yuga Labs on multiple levels.

In response to the common questions raised by the community, Garga.eth, one of the co-founders of Yuga Labs, stated in a post on X platform today that they have heard concerns about the acquisition potentially diverting Yuga's attention. This is also a concern for Yuga. The reason why the team made this acquisition decision is because they believe and understand that the PROOF team can contribute to Yuga, and both parties can work together to build more, faster, and better content in the entire ecosystem.

However, the community generally does not buy the vague explanation of Garga.eth, and some extreme users even launched personal attacks on Garga.eth in the post. Subsequently, Yuga Labs officially announced that it will hold a community meeting in the Discord channel at 9:00 am tomorrow Beijing time, Town Hall, to further respond to various questions in the community.

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

For BAYC, who has been sitting on the throne alone for a long time, the concept of "opponent" has always seemed unclear. It wasn't until the rise of Pudgy Penguins that challengers emerged one after another, but they never threatened BAYC's dominant position.

However, for the rapidly rising Pudgy Penguins, whether they still consider the struggling BAYC as their opponent is another matter.

NFT is ushering in a new era. In the previous cycle, BAYC has always been the best reference for the success of NFT, but the Pudgy Penguins' overtaking of BAYC has proven the correctness of its IP construction ideas and has also provided a new reference direction for more NFT projects. Its development path may become a new standard for judging the value of NFT in the next cycle.

At the end of the article, I would like to share the comment from Sebastien, the person in charge of zkSync's DeFi business, regarding this matter.

"Yuga created the most incredible NFT brand in the previous cycle, and everyone was fascinated by their products. Countless celebrities such as Bieber, Eminem, Snoop, and Steph Curry joined in, but today Pudgy Penguins has surpassed them. Pudgy Penguins is now in Walmart, and that's Walmart!"

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