Web3 powerhouse Yuga Labs has announced it has created a community council composed of seven Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT holders who are active in its community.
In a blog post published Wednesday, Yuga said the council members—described as "long-standing proactive community members"—will focus on gathering and curating community feedback and spearheading philanthropic efforts.
Yuga said it also wants to keep the council “autonomous,” meaning it’s not governed by the multibillion-dollar startup. Members are encouraged to bring and pitch their own ideas for upcoming initiatives.
NFTs—unique blockchain tokens that signify ownership over an asset, typically digital art—have become an important part of Web3. NFT-based communities often congregate across the internet and IRL in Twitter Spaces, Discord servers, Telegram groups, and at token-gated conferences and parties. And an NFT collection’s “community” can be a driving factor that leads a trader to buy or sell their digital asset.
Yuga’s move to establish a community council, then, affirms that the company wants to take its NFT holders seriously—and give them a clear avenue to voice ideas and concerns.
Apes, we wouldn’t be where we are today without our incredible community. We’re excited to announce the first BAYC community council made up of 7 long standing proactive community members to work alongside us moving forward. 🧵below
“This council, and future councils to come, puts a more formal, efficient and consistent process in place for Yuga leadership to get community feedback and advice on an ongoing basis,” the company wrote in its post.
Newly-appointed council member Wave, aka 0xWave, told Decrypt via Twitter DM that he thinks the council’s job is to “mainly to serve as aggregators of community ideas and sentiment rather than over-inject my personal preferences.”
The Bored Ape Yacht Club offers plenty of disinterested-looking Apes—10,000 of them, to be exact, in NFT form—but a suspicious lack of boating opportunities. Now, one Bored Ape NFT holder (and yacht owner) plans to change that with the launch of a decentralized yachting club.
The Bored Yachts Club hopes to create a decentralized, NFT-gated yachting platform that lets members rent real vessels all over the world, with proceeds going to charity. The initiative will begin with "Lady Amanda," the si...
Wave said he also wants to help BAYC holders better understand crypto security, especially when it comes to protecting their precious NFTs. According to Dune data, 413 Bored and Mutant Ape NFTs are currently marked “stolen” on OpenSea.
“Holding these assets puts a target on your back to bad actors,” he said.
TheMiamiApe, 0xWave, 0xEthanDG, Negithenagi, Peterjfang, beijingdou, and SeraStargirl make up the BAYC Council. Image: Yuga Labs.
But how does the BAYC community feel about its newly-appointed council? Some are disappointed that they weren’t chosen—and maybe even a little bitter.
“I’m not mad I’m not on the official BAYC community counsel [sic] I just want to know what I’m doing wrong,” a Bored Ape who goes by Storm wrote on Twitter in response to the news.
“I would advocate for not seeing the current council as forever enshrined, but rather a first iteration,” Wave replied.
Multiple Twitter users also expressed surprise that Mutant Ape holder “ThreadGuy” didn’t make the cut.
Man @notthreadguy been repping that MAYC for the entirety of his Twitter career and didn't make the council
While the council members may be optimistic, responses on social media are mixed. One Mutant Ape holder applauded Yuga and declared that the council “is exactly what Web3 is all about.” Others, like tech reporter Asa Hiken, noted that Yuga has “personally selected who will represent the community, as opposed to a vote amongst holders.”
It is unclear what criteria Yuga Labs used in evaluating potential members of the council or how the final members were selected. Yuga Labs has not yet responded to Decrypt’s request for comment.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Bybit is pulling the plug on its NFT marketplace, the latest in a string of crypto firms abandoning the once-hyped digital asset sector, as the exchange continues to grapple with the fallout from a hack five weeks ago.
The crypto exchange said in an April 1 statement that it will discontinue operations for its NFT Marketplace, Inscription Marketplace, and IDO product pages as part of a broader effort to streamline its offerings.
The platform will become inaccessible on April 8, and users have b...
Although some collectors have left NFTs for dead, Canary Capital believes the asset class could find fans on Wall Street.
In a recent interview with Decrypt, Canary Capital CEO Steven McClurg suggested the NFT market could soon experience a revival, with chatter about funds tracking NFT prices potentially stoking investor interest in digital art collectibles.
Although an NFT-backed ETF might have been unthinkable a few years ago, the likelihood that such a fund could become available to U.S. i...
Ethereum NFT marketplace X2Y2 is shutting down its trading platform at the end of April, the firm announced Monday, as the development team pivots to the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto.
X2Y2’s smart contracts will persist, so trades can still be executed, but users will not be able to use the website’s front-end after April 30.
“I know this might sting, especially when it comes to token price. X2Y2 tokens were tied to this NFT vision, and as we close this chapter, that...