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Yuga Labs, the $4 billion company behind the dominant NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club, will debut its first ever Bitcoin-based NFT project later this week, the company announced on Monday.
The collection, TwelveFold, will consist of 300 limited edition generative artworks each inscribed with the Bitcoin blockchain. It is one of the highest profile launches to date via Ordinalsa recently launched way to commit artwork and media to Bitcoin by permanently linking each to an individual Satoshi, or 1/100,000,000 of a full Bitcoin (BTC).
The tiles, all 12×12 grids – a tribute to the way data is stored on the Bitcoin blockchain – will combine 3D graphics and hand-drawn features. The project was designed and created by Yuga’s internal art team, and the company said it has no connection to its Ethereum-based IP and will have no future interactions or benefit in that regard.
Promotional artwork for Yuga Labs’ first Bitcoin NFT project. Image: Yuga Labs
TwelveFold marks a departure from Yuga’s previous offerings in a few key ways. Most notably, every other project under the Yuga banner currently lives on the Ethereum blockchain, the leading network for NFT projects.
That list includes Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), spinoff Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), and virtual lands for the upcoming Otherside metaverse game. Yuga Labs also owns CryptoPunks and Meebits, two “blue chip” Ethereum NFT projects created by Larva Labs for which Yuga purchased the IP rights last year.
TwelveFold also differs from these projects in terms of size. While all other Yuga-owned collections have 10,000 or more NFTs, TwelveFold will only consist of 300 pieces. It is closer in approach to Autoglyphsan influential Larva Labs generative art project on Ethereum spanning just 512 NFTs.
“All of these choices are a departure from what is expected of Yuga,” co-founder Greg Solano wrote in a blog post accompanying Monday’s announcement. “But you know. The devil does expected things.”
“We are excited about Ordinal Inscriptions and what the future holds for digital artifacts on Bitcoin,” he continued. Yuga said they will announce auction details later this week and that information will come 24 hours before the actual sale.
One of the generative works of art in Yuga Labs’ TwelveFold series. Image: Yuga Labs
Ordinals have called attention of the NFT world over the past month, and while the idea of NFT-like assets imprinted on the blockchain has irked some Bitcoin maximalists, it’s catching on in a big way. More than 200,000 unique Ordinals have been minted to date, including from notable projects such as DeGods and OnChain Monkey. It is even CryptoPunks clones on Bitcoin now.
Yuga’s foray into Bitcoin NFTs also comes at a time when the company’s most stable revenue stream appears to be at risk. NFT creators like Yuga rely on creator royalties – a fee typically between 5% and 10% – required for secondary sales of NFTs on Ethereum marketplaces like OpenSea.
Earlier this month, however, OpenSea stopped enforcing any royalties in an attempt to fend off competition from its new rival, NFT trading platform Blur. Yuga Labs had previously criticized OpenSea to assess the move.
