Yuga Labs CEO Greg Solano shared an update on the future of CryptoPunks, assuring that the NFT crypto collection will be completely decentralized and exist on the blockchain without any intervention from the company.
Yuga Labs will no longer interfere with CryptoPunks, thus ensuring the decentralization of the NFT project and its preservation on the blockchain, Solano assured.
The CEO of the Web3 company took to the X platform (formerly Twitter) to express his new plans for the future of this collection of non-fungible tokens, which was initially developed by Larva Labs and acquired by Yuga Labs in March 2022.
According to Solano, from now on, the Web3 company will only be concerned with supporting some museums and institutions in their quest to acquire one of these crypto-collectibles and helping to educate their public about them and their importance.
Solano’s comments come amid a wave of criticism that Yuga Labs has received following the launch of its new “Super Punk World” collection, which is inspired by popular Ethereum punks.
Super Punk World is a crypto collection of 500 3D NFT sculptures, which was designed by Yuga Labs in collaboration with artist Nina Chanel, to pay tribute to CryptoPunks. However, the new collection has faced backlash from punk holders and the crypto community at large. Due to this situation, Solano assured that the company “will no longer touch punks.”
The crypto community wants to maintain the original spirit of the CryptoPunks
Several people expressed their dissatisfaction on X with the launch of the Super Punk World collection, which was presented on May 20, from the official account of the CryptoPunks project.
Yuga Labs said the series of 3D NFT sculptures was designed to pay homage to CryptoPunks’ irreverent early roots, and that through it, it sought to blur the lines of race and gender and reflect on virtual versus real-world identities.
However, the crypto community took the revelation of the new crypto collection as an attack on the original spirit of CryptoPunks. There were even those who warned that the project's account had been hacked and that the new NFTs could be an attempt at a scam.
Other more critical users they manifested that Yuga Labs had “killed” CryptoPunks with their new collection and was bringing down the Web3 brand. Memes were also quick to appear, to show the disappointment of the punk headlines.
CryptoPunks are a collection of 10.000 pixelated avatar NFTs, which is considered the foundation of modern CryptoArt. It was launched in 2017 on the Ethereum blockchain and, to date, its price has appreciated to the point that they have been traded for several million dollars on the market.
