What if the Accusations Against the Bored Ape Yacht Club were True?

Jonas -

Since the very beginning Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, has received accusations of having hidden racist and antisemitic imagery in their NFT collection.

I was skeptical at first and didn't really see it. How could some monkey pictures that many of today's most beloved superstars proudly showed off and sometimes even used as their profile pictures on Twitter and Instagram be racist?

Wave - Independent writer and NFT collector

This brings us to today's guest, Wave, an anonymous writer, and digital art enthusiast. Wave was also skeptical at first. He even wrote an article on his blog defending Yuga Labs against one of the early accusations.

But as he went further and further into this rabbit hole and as he dug deeper into the founders' past, he completely changed his mind.

In this conversation, Wave walks us through the most critical pieces of what he and others had found when trying to answer the question: Whether the bored ape yacht club is founded in racism or not.

Why should you care?

Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, is a multibillion-dollar company. They have raised $450 million from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz at a $4 billion valuation. Earlier this year, Yuga Labs bought the IP rights to CryptoPunks and Meebits, making it the most powerful NFT company in the world.