The company Yuga Labs, creators of BAYC, has announced a restructuring that has led to layoffs in its American workforce. The startup, valued at $4 billion, is rethinking its priorities amid an NFT market with growing uncertainty. The decline in ApeCoin price is an indicator of declining demand for tokens associated with NFT projects.
The company Yuga Labs, behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT phenomenon, has announced a restructuring that has led to layoffs in its American workforce. The startup, valued at $4 billion, is rethinking its priorities amid an NFT market with growing uncertainty.
Yuga Labs CEO Daniel Alegre recognized that the company had expanded too internally and needed to focus on its core competencies, seeking external collaborations. The restructuring, which affects only employees in the United States for now, continues to be evaluated in relation to the company’s international teams.
Yuga Labs: “BAYC Will Look to Restructure More Specific Projects”
Despite these changes, Greg Solano, co-founder of Yuga Labs, noted that the team still has more than 120 employees. However, both Alegre and Solano admitted that the company had spread itself across multiple projects and that some product launches did not meet their standards:
“I’m sure many of you have seen the news that Yuga is undergoing a restructuring today. A difficult day, obviously. It hurts to be separated from team members who have been in the trenches with us. But we needed to make some changes to the company to ensure we are set up for long-term success.”
One of the projects mentioned is “Otherside,” a metaverse game in development. Yuga Labs has announced several technical and creative partnerships for its development, and recently made a strategic investment in spatial computing startup Hadean.
Alegre emphasized the importance of Otherside’s strategy and announced that all the company’s digital content will be linked to this platform. Additionally, teams working on projects like Meebits and 10KTF will be integrated into Otherside.
Although Alegre acknowledged that the company has not shared enough public information about Otherside, he promised more updates on this platform. He also mentioned the challenges facing the industry and the global economy in general.
BAYC Restructuring: Changes for the Metaverse, Gaming and NFTs,
Alegre, who had previously been president of the video game company Activision Blizzard, also noted that the company had faced difficulties in some of its launches of video game development projects due to its attempt to handle everything internally – that is, not resorting to measures such as outsourcing.
Additionally, he noted that progress on the planned metaverse platform, Otherside, had not been sufficient, despite being first announced in 2022. As demand for NFT collectibles has declined over the past year, prices for Bored Apes and other “blue chip” NFTs experienced a sharp drop, as did the price of ApeCoin.
The restructuring is a reminder of the volatility and constant evolution of the NFT market. The decline in ApeCoin price is an indicator of declining demand for tokens associated with NFT projects in a saturated market. Finally, Yuga Labs’ restructuring may encourage other companies in the NFT market to evaluate their own structures and strategies.
Yuga Labs, which grew significantly thanks to the success of Bored Ape, is now faced with the need to adapt and find a sustainable model in an ever-changing NFT market.
By Leonardo Pérez
