Yuga Labs halts CryptoPunks project after ‘woke’ community backlash

May 21, 202408:01 UTC

Yuga Labs CEO Greg Solano announced that the nonfungible token (NFT) company would “no longer touch” the CryptoPunks project following community backlash from its new Super Punk World project.

On May 20, the official CryptoPunks account announced a new NFT collection called Super Punk World. The collection featured 500 pieces of hybridized 3D sculptures, which it described as blurring the lines of race and gender.

The pieces were created by New York-based painter Nina Abney and aimed to pay homage to “the irreverent, early-internet roots of the CryptoPunks project.”

Despite its goals, the collection received criticism from various crypto community members for being “woke.” A community member said that Yuga Labs killed CryptoPunks with the move. “Go woke, go broke. Yuga killed Punks today.”

Meanwhile, as another individual threatened to sell their CryptoPunk NFT, a pseudonymous influencer named Greg sarcastically asked if the account had been hacked. Additionally, a disgruntled NFT trader urged the community to block Yuga Labs and move on.

In response to the backlash, Solano published a statement on X explaining that the team envisioned collaborating with world-class artists like Abney to connect Web3 with the traditional art world.

The Yuga Labs executive also shared that they plan to get Abney’s collection to those already supporting her work in the space. This means that it may be airdropped to SuperCoolWorld holders.

Regarding the CryptoPunks collection, the Yuga Labs CEO said it will no longer touch it. Solano wrote:

“What about punks? Yuga will no longer touch punks. They will just be decentralized and preserved on the blockchain.”

The executive stated that Yuga aims to support museums and institutions in acquiring CryptoPunk NFTs and educating their audiences about the collection.

Despite a downturn in NFT trading volumes, the CryptoPunks collection saw a resurgence in March when two transactions broke sales records for the NFT collection.

On March 4, a rare alien CryptoPunk claimed the second-highest selling price ever for a punk when it sold for 4,500 Ether ETHUSD, worth about $16 million at the time of the transaction.

However, the record was quickly broken on March 20, when another CryptoPunk piece was sold for 4,850 ETH, worth about $16.4 million at the time of the sale.