Yuga Labs aims to secure $50 million with the new Mecha Apes NFT collection

Yuga Labs aims to raise $50 million with its new Mecha Apes collection, according to a report from Protos. Mecha Apes is expected to launch later this year, months after Yuga raised $600 million from the “Otherdeeds for Otherside” NFT collection.

Yuga Labs launches a new NFT collection

Web3 firm Yuga Labs is reportedly looking to raise $50 million from its new Mecha Apes non-fungible token (NFT) collection, according to a leaked document seen by Protos. There is currently no additional information about the upcoming collection.

Expected to launch later in 2022, Mecha Apes comes after Yuga Labs completely sold out its “Otherdeeds for Otherside” NFT collection, totaling 100,000 pieces. Each piece sells for a starting price of $6,000, earning Yuga Labs a total of $600,000.

But the floor price per piece fell to $2,700 as a result of a broader decline in the crypto market. The current bear market has hit the prices of Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, while NFT trading volume remains down almost 100% from 2021 highs.

While Yuga Labs did not reveal any information about the Mecha Apes collection, the firm has released a “Mecha Piece” as one of the items in Otherdeeds. The Miami-based blockchain company describes Othedeeds as a place “where players will be able to interact simultaneously in a single location, connect to natural voice chat (even in crowds of thousands), experience rich, immersive gameplay supported by AI and physics, and move between metaverses .”

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Yuga remains confident in face of NFT market downturn

Rumors of the upcoming Mecha Apes collection may indicate that Yuga Labs remains confident in the long-term potential of the NFT market, which has seen a significant decline in interest in recent months. The firm, best known for its Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection, raised $450 million in a seed funding round earlier this year, valuing the company at more than $4 billion.

The funding round was backed by FTX Ventures, Google Ventures, Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg and Animoca Brands, who teamed up with Yuga Labs to create a metaverse game. Yuga also collaborated last month with Snoop Dogg and Eminem to create the first metaverse-inspired 2022 Video Music Awards (VMAs) performance.

The NFT market has seen a sharp turnaround in terms of activity this year, following its extraordinary growth in 2021. Global NFT sales were $647.23 million in July, down from approximately $4.78 billion in January.

Do you own any NFTs made by Yuga Labs? Let us know in the comments below.

About the author

Tim Fries is the co-founder of The Tokenist. He has a B. Sc. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tim served as a Senior Associate in the investment team at RW Baird’s US Private Equity division and is also a co-founder of Protective Technologies Capital, an investment firm specializing in sensing, protection and control solutions.