Bored Apes "acquires" CryptoPunks to create the first NFT monopoly 😮; Moove Raises $105M proving "from Africa to the world" is possible 🚀; FinTech still rules all the funding around us 💸
Good Morning FinTech, March 15
Good morning Everyone,
And happy Tuesday! Today’s issue is undoubtedly the best one this week. Check it out yourselves:
Bored Apes acquires CryptoPunks to create the first NFT monopoly 😮
The deal 🤝 Yuga Labs, the creator & the company behind one of the biggest and most valuable NFT collections in the industry, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, has acquired the rights to the intellectual property of the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections from Larva Labs.
Funny thing is that CryptoPunks were the world’s most valuable NFTs for most of 2021, until Bored Apes dethroned them 🦧
The rights 👉 Following the acquisition, Yuga Labs now owns the brands, copyright in the art, and other IP rights for both collections, along with 423 CryptoPunks and 1711 Meebits, and the first thing they are doing is giving full commercial rights to the NFT holders.
In other words, this means that CryptoPunks and Meebits holders will be granted the same rights as holders of Yuga Labs' existing collections. Prior to the deal, Larva Labs had been reluctant to grant this same kind of commercial license to its NFT holders, which had become a source of controversy among CryptoPunks investors. Several high-profile holders even abandoned the project.
The refresh ♻️ NFTs are unique tokens that sit on blockchain networks, such as Ethereum, and are used to demonstrate ownership over digital items, like profile pictures, music files, or other kinds of assets. The market for NFTs exploded over the last year, with more than $23B changing hands in 2021, as per data from DappRadar.
The boom was led in large part by collections like Bored Apes and CryptoPunks, which are the two highest-value collections by market capitalization and floor price.
NFTs, which are at the heart of Web3 and its guiding ethos, are getting more and more centralized. Should we talk about the monopoly here? Here’s the takeaway: