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One community member said Yuga Labs killed the CryptoPunks project with its new Super Punk World collection, while another threatened to sell the punk NFT.
Yuga Labs CEO Greg Solano announced that the NFT company will no longer intervene in the CryptoPunks project following community backlash.
On May 20, the official CryptoPunks account announced a new NFT collection called Super Punk World. The collection consisted of 500 pieces of hybrid 3D sculptures that blurred the boundaries of race and gender.
Created by New York-based painter Nina Abney, these pieces were intended to pay homage to the early internet roots of the CryptoPunks project.
However, despite these goals, the collection was criticized by some members of the crypto community for being “woke”. A community member stated that Yuga Labs killed CryptoPunks with this move. “If you get Woke, you go down. Yuga killed Punks today.”
Meanwhile, another person threatened to sell his CryptoPunk NFT, while a pseudonymous influencer named Greg sarcastically asked if their account was hacked. Additionally, an angry NFT trader called on the community to block Yuga Labs and move on.
Following the reactions, Solano published a statement on the X platform, stating that the team dreams of collaborating with world-class artists like Abney to combine Web3 with the traditional art world.
The Yuga Labs executive also shared that they plan to bring Abney’s collection to people who already support his work. This means the collection can be airdropped to SuperCoolWorld owners.
Regarding the CryptoPunks collection, Yuga Labs CEO stated that they will no longer interfere with this project. Solano wrote:
“What will happen to Punks? Yuga will not touch Punks anymore. They will just be decentralized and protected on the blockchain.”
The manager also stated that Yuga aims to support museums and institutions to acquire CryptoPunk NFTs and inform the masses about the collection.
Despite the decline in NFT trading volumes, the CryptoPunks collection has experienced a revival, breaking sales records with two transactions in March.
On March 4, a rare alien CryptoPunk sold for 4,500 Ethereum, worth approximately $16 million, reaching the second highest sale price for the collectible.
However, this record was quickly broken on March 20 when another CryptoPunk piece sold for 4,850 ETH, approximately $16.4 million at the time.
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