Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Apes Yacht Club, revealed on Friday that they had purchased the rights to the CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections from developer Larva Labs.
Bored Apes and CryptoPunks are the two most valuable NFT collections in terms of market cap. The deal’s terms were not disclosed.
Some big news to share today: Yuga has acquired the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections from @LarvaLabs, and the first thing we’re doing is giving full commercial rights to the NFT holders. Just like we did for BAYC and MAYC owners. pic.twitter.com/lAIKKvoEDj
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) March 11, 2022
Currently, members of the community own CryptoPunks and Meebits NFTs, although the intellectual property rights to the characters are owned by the projects’ developers.
Yuga Labs announced with this release that they will be granting individual holders complete commercial rights to the NFTs; they will not, however, be transferring the whole copyright.
CryptoPunks were launched in 2017 as an experimental project by friends Matt and John. Over the last 2 years they have become one of the most influential collections in the world of NFTs.
Yuga Labs is the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, the most famous NFTs collection today that has become a phenomenon in just a few months.
Yuga Labs also announced that “We now own the brands, copyright in the art, and other IP rights for both collections, along with 423 CryptoPunks and 1711 Meebits (…)“.
