Yuga Labs raises USD 450 Mn, plans to unveil Bored Ape metaverse

Yuga Labs, the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has reportedly secured USD 450 million. The company now plans to develop its metaverse dubbed Otherside.

This funding was initiated by video game maker Animoca Brands, venture capital firm Andressen Horowitz, and crypto companies like Coinbase, MoonPay, and FTX. This recent move comes after two IP acquisitions and the unveiling of a new cryptocurrency.

Yuga Labs unveiled the BAYC collection in April last year. These tokenized money profile pictures are connected to the Ethereum blockchain and come with community improvements like in-person events, access to exclusive channels of social media, as well as merchandise.

Some of the celebrities who purchased apes are Mark Cuban, Serena Williams, Snoop Dog, and more recently Rob Kapito, President of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager. Rolling Stone even had Bored Ape on the cover of its print magazine in November.

During that time, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of Bored Ape have been bid up to a minimum token acquisition price of USD 300,000 while some have sold for nearly USD 2.9 million.

The valuation of the company comes along with its moves to develop a huge multiplayer online role-playing game (RPG) called Otherside which intends to act as a connection for the wider NFT world.

While Yuga Labs has not shared a timeline for its metaverse, a play-to-earn game is scheduled for launch later this year. Wylie Aronow, the Co-Founder of Bored Ape Yacht Club, expressed that a real experience like a Ready Player One will be run by players.

Yuga Labs has been active in terms of business ventures. On March 11, the company acquired the intellectual property of Meebits, and Crypto Punks, two of the most popular NFT collections.

A week later, it helped in launching a cryptocurrency known as ApeCoin, which after a shaky start, has settled in a week with an overall market capitalization of nearly USD 3.6 billion.

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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/yuga-labs-bored-ape-metaverse-213041396.html