Yuga Labs, the company behind the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection of non-fungible tokens (NFT), announces a restructuring. Under the leadership of Greg Solano, successor to Daniel Alegre, the company is looking to return to its roots and admits to having “lost its way”.
Restructuring at Yuga Labs, parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)
“I’m determined to transform Yuga and get back to our roots, which means making some tough decisions. By far the most difficult is saying goodbye to some talented team members.” With these words, Greg Solano, co-founder of Yuga Labs, announced a restructuring of the company.
Best known for its flagship Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection, which contributed to the emergence of the non-fungible token (NFT) sector during its golden age in 2022, Yuga Labs is now behind other leading collections such as CryptoPunks or Meebits (both acquired in March 2022) or even Moonbirds via the recent acquisition of PROOF.
But for some time now, Yuga Labs has been losing its way. The company has lost itself in its countless side projects such as Otherside, and the collapse of the floor price of its renowned collections has contributed to a more than considerable drop in secondary market revenues.
Evolution of BAYC’s floor price from inception to today
Greg Solano informed his employees by e-mail that the company had decided to restructure. He himself shared the e-mail from his X account, adding that it was a “really tough day”.
gm, really tough day today. I am hellbent on transforming yuga and getting us back to our roots, and that means making hard decisions. by far the hardest is saying goodbye to some talented team members. here was my message to the team this morning. pic.twitter.com/gBkoNf2iK3
– Garga.eth (Greg Solano) (@CryptoGarga) April 26, 2024
“I had to make a real assessment of the company’s situation while I was at the helm for the last 2 months. The creative spirit that has animated this company since its inception has been blurred by labyrinthine corporate processes. We work hard and we care, but somehow we end up with groups and committees. We plan more than we produce.”
Greg Solano
As he himself points out here, Greg Solano has been at the helm of Yuga Labs for the past 2 months, having succeeded Daniel Alegre, CEO for 10 months and former COO of Blizzard Entertainment.
What to expect next?
According to this new press release from Greg Solano, the restructuring is intended to lighten the payroll at Yuga Labs and allow the various projects to develop around smaller, more “agile” teams:
To put it simply, Yuga has lost its way. Refocusing and getting on the right track means being a smaller, more agile team and more native to crypto. A team that does fewer things, but does them brilliantly.
Referring to the days when BAYC was at its peak and Yuga Labs was operating in “easy mode” thanks to secondary market revenues, Greg Solano calls this new beginning “hard mode,” pointing out that the company was starting from 0, but that he had a plan:
This plan, which has not been revealed in detail, does however include the creation of internal Yuga Labs divisions for each project. Greg Solano had already mentioned this in a press release published on February 21 on X. For the growth of BAYC, for example, a new company called “BAYC LLC” has been specially set up.
