‘Swindler’s Dream’ — Yuga’s Bitcoin NFTs Auction Model Draws Criticism
Nonfungible token (NFT) conglomerate Yuga Labs is facing some criticism from the cryptocurrency community, including the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, over how it plans to auction its new Bitcoin NFT collection.
On March 5, Yuga opened bidding for its “TwelveFold” collection, which will see 300 NFT-like images inscribed on Satoshis using the Bitcoin-native Ordinals protocol, with 288 from the collection sent to the 288 highest bidders.
According to a March 5 press release, those participating in the bidding process will be required to send their entire bid amount in BTC to a unique BTC address controlled by Yuga. Winners would simply pay up the BTC they bid, while Yuga said it would return the BTC to unsuccessful top bidders.
However, such a plan has served some in the crypto community, and some have pointed out that having to manually issue refunds for failed bids is like the “Stone Age”.
The user behind an Ordinals-focused Twitter account “typically” called the auction model a “con’s dream” and added that while they doubt Yuga would keep BTC from unsuccessful bids, the way it conducted the auction sets a “REALLY bad precedent.”
The post even saw a response from Bitcoin Ordinals creator himself, Casey Rodarmor, who heavily weighed in on the discussion telling Yuga to “get fucked” and calling the execution of the auction “degenerate nonsense”.
He added that if Yuga were to conduct a similar auction, he would encourage others to boycott the project.
Other users pointed out the shortcomings of the auction system, saying that it is possible that someone may pay too much for a twelvefold due to a possible significant price discrepancy between the highest and lowest bids in the top 288.
Despite the criticism from some, many were happy to see a major project like Yuga – which rose to prominence due to several Ethereum-based NFT collections – moving to Bitcoin.
Related: Luxor Mining acquires OrdinalHub amid Bitcoin-based NFT hype
Ordinally, who previously criticized the compilation, later tweeted appreciation for “the fact that Yuga took it upon himself to attempt [to] go a Bitcoin route when setting up this auction.”
An Ordinals based collection, Ordinal Pizza AND, expressed excitement over Yuga’s BTC collection, calling it a “massive net positive for Ordinals.”
The criticism wasn’t enough to stop paid-in bidders from trying to cement a top spot to get their hands on Yuga’s first BTC collection.
At the time of writing, the top bid was 1.11 BTC (around $25,000) according to the TwelveFold website with the lowest bid recorded as 0.011 BTC, or around $250.
